212 Annals of the South African lluscuin. 



Description. General colour above brown with a yellowish tinge, 

 darkest along the back, lighter on the sides ; below greyish, the fur 

 slaty with somewhat paler tips, never white ; ears large and nearly 

 naked, when pressed forwards reaching the eye ; hands and feet 

 grey, never white, slender with the usual number of pads which are 

 all circular; tail usually about the same length as the head and 

 body, dark coloured, thinly covered with the usual bristles not 

 increasing in length towards the tip, towards the base somewhat 

 lighter below than above but towards the tip dark all round, rings of 

 the tail slender, about 50 to the inch ; mammae 10 in number 3 

 pairs pectoral, 2 pairs inguinal. 



Dimensions (from a specimen in alcohol). Head and body 3'20 

 (skin 3 '70) ; tail 3 -45 ; hind foot -62 ; from ear to nose-tip -90 ; skull 

 length '80, breadth -45 ; upper molars '15. 



Distribution. Cosmopolitan, being found in the habitations of 

 civilised man throughout the world ; it probably originated in the 

 East ; it is common in Cape Town houses and also in Port Nolloth 

 and Pretoria and probably all other towns of South Africa of any 

 size. 



MUS MINUTOIDES, THE WHITE-BELLIED FlELD MOUSE. 



3[ns minutoides, A. SMITH, S. Afr. Quart. Journ., ii., p. 157 (1834) ; 

 THOMAS, Proc. Zool. Soc., p. 266 (1882) ; ID., ibid., p. 13 (1888) 

 [synonymy] ; DE WINTON, Ann. Mag. N. H. (6), xx., p. 320 (1897). 



Mus minimus, PETEES, M. B. Akad. Berlin, p. 274 (1852); ID., 

 Eeise Mozamb. Saugeth., p. 153, pi. xxxiii., fig. 2, pi. xxxv., fig. S 

 (1852) ; GRILL ET SUNDEVALL, Victorin Zool. Anteck. k. Vet. Akad. 

 Handl., Stockholm, ii., p. 17 (1858). 



Description. Small and slender, general colour above fawn, rather 

 darker on the middle of the back through the admixture of black 

 hairs ; fur coarse with pale slaty bases ; below pure white without 

 slaty bases, the line of demarcation of colour being strictly defined ; 

 ears moderate rounded and almost naked, a little darker along their 

 margins ; hands and feet scantily covered with white hairs, the 

 claws rather large and not concealed by the hairs ; pads normal in 

 number and rounded, the skin between on both palms and soles 

 being covered with numerous little rounded swellings ; tail rather 

 shorter than the head and body, pale, and covered with a fairly 

 thick coating of white bristles not forming a bushy tip ; mammae 

 8 to 10 2 to 3 pairs pectoral, 2 pairs inguinal. 



Skull short and rather broad, anterior upper molar large, longer 



