170 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



The British Long-tailed Field Mice form the subject of 

 an elaborate paper by Martin A. C. Hinton, 1 entitled " Notes 

 on British Forms of Apodemus" The paper is based mainly 

 upon material collected in the Hebrides in 1912 and 1913, but 

 specimens from various parts of the British Isles have also 

 been carefully studied. The Non-Ffebridean British races 

 are grouped together under the typical form {Apodemus 

 sylvaticus sylvaticus, L.). Fifteen examples from Skye were 

 examined, and also referred to the typical form, while seven- 

 teen from the island of Bute are relegated to a new sub- 

 species under the name of A. sylvaticus butei. The specimens 

 from the Hebrides falling into the species hebridensis of De 

 Winton are separated into no fewer than six subspecies, 

 of which Jiebridensis hamiltoni (from Rum), h. cumbrae (from 

 Great Cumbrae), //. maclean (from Mull), and Ji. fiolagan 

 (from Arran) are described as new, as is also a form of 

 fridariensis, which is called grantii, from Shetland. The 

 differences between these various forms of field mice are so 

 slight, being based mainly on intricate cranial measure- 

 ments, that we are afraid they can only be appreciated 

 by specialists after prolonged study. One result of this 

 wholesale splitting of species will be, we fear, to deter 

 the ordinary naturalist from the study of our smaller British 

 Mammals. But for the information of our readers we may 

 quote Hinton's remarks, if only to show how far he has 

 been led by his elaborate studies. " It now appears," 

 says he, " that in practically every island of the Hebrides, 

 differentiation from the parent stock has proceeded so far 

 that the most logical course would be to describe the mice 

 of each island as distinct subspecies. On the mainland 

 of Britain the same process is seen at work. Skulls from 

 the English plains taken here as being typical of A. s. 

 sylvaticus seem to be distinguishable from those of Wales 

 or from the Scotch Highlands; those from the lowlands of 

 Scotland in turn have their peculiar characters. But in 

 order to define these mainland forms it will be necessary 

 to have far more material of the right kind than is at 

 present available . . . the work must be based upon 



1 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., July 19 14, pp. 1 17-134 



