Mr, W. H. Benson on a new Burmese Streptaxis. 471 



Both the specimens in the Leyden Museum were derived from 

 the Sunda Islands, the one from Java, the other from Sumatra. 

 They have quite the air of a large species of the genus Mus 

 proper, for instance Mus decumunus. The entire length of the 

 animals, tail included, is full 3^ decimetres. The fore feet have 

 four fingers, and a short rudiment of a thumb with flat nail ; 

 the hind feet have the thumb somewhat free, standing apart 

 from the other fingers, with a flat nail. The nails of the other 

 fingers are sharp, curved, and pressed flat laterally. The tail is 

 hairy at the base, elsewhere covered with rings of horny scales 

 of an elongate quadrilateral form. The colour of the hair is red- 

 brown on the back, yellowish grey along the sides, and towards 

 the belly lighter (in the specimen from Java, whitish). Some 

 long dark-brown bristles are set on the upper lip ; they attain a 

 length of 7 centimetres. 



The skull is wanting. We can, however, scarcely entertain 

 any doubt as to its form ; and the teeth must resemble those of 

 other species of the genus Mus, to which, in our opinion, the 

 so-named Pithecheir must be referred, and of which this animal 

 appears to form not more than a subgenus, or only an aberrant 

 species, chiefly distinguished by the disposition of the hind feet, 

 in which the thumb somewhat resembles that of the marsupial 

 genus Didelphis. In the mean time, a positive determination 

 can alone be given when the skull and teeth shall have become 

 known to us. These short notes may serve to indicate the 

 home of the Pithecheir, and at the same time perhaps supply 

 an inducement to naturalists who happen to be in Java and 

 Sumatra to turn their attention to this species of animal. 



The specimen from Java is 0'360 metre long, of which the head 

 forms about 0*048, the tail 0*175. The larger specimen from 

 Sumatra is of a lighter red colour; it has a length of 0*395, 

 of which the tail forms 0*186. The length of the tail is thus, 

 in both specimens, somewhat less than the head and trunk 

 together, and is to the whole length of the animal as 6 : 13, 

 or thereabout. But these measurements, taken from stuffed 

 skins, have only a relative value, and do not merit unlimited 

 confidence. 



XLVII. — Characters of a new Burmese Strept^ixis and of two forms 

 belonging to a peculiar section of Helix collected by Captain 

 Richard H. Sankey, Madras Engineers. By W. H. Benson, 

 Esq. 



A SMALL packet of shells, hastily collected in the vicinity of 

 Moulmein, in the Tenasserim Provinces, by Capt. Sankey, 

 during the most unfavourable period of the year, bears fresh 



