40 Miller A New Dormouse from Italy. 



wood-brown areas cause the slight differences in color of the back and 

 sides. Color of sides continued down outer side of hind leg to heel and 

 outer side of front leg nearly to wrist. Underparts whitish cream-color, 

 the line of demarkation everywhere sharply defined and the contrasts 

 conspicuous. Black face markings exactly as in Eliomys quercinus. 

 Tail sharply bicolor from base to a little beyond middle, creamy white 

 below, wood-brown mixed with white above. Slightly beyond middle 

 there is a rather sudden change both above and below to black. This 

 color continues uninterrupted for a distance of about 20 mm. on lower 

 side and on upper side to base of terminal, nearly clear white pencil. 

 The entire white area at tip of tail is about 10 mm. in length above and 

 30 mm. below. While the black of the upper surface extends further 

 back than that below, the reverse is true of that of the under side of the 

 tail. This shows a distinct tendency to run forward along the median 

 line and divide the white area into two lateral stripes. Feet dull white. 

 Ears thinly sprinkled with minute whitish hairs. 



Skutt and teeth. I can find no tangible characters to distinguish the 

 skull and teeth from those of Eliomys quercinus. 



Measurements. External measurements of type: total length, 249; 

 head and body, 13G; tail vertebrae, 108; hind foot, 29 (28). A second 

 specimen (^) from the type locality: total length, 254; head and body, 147; 

 tail vertebrae, 107; hind foot, 30 (29). The hind foot in each of two 

 other topotypes measures 30 (29). One of these specimens is a female. 



Cranial measurements of type: greatest length, 34; basal length, 29; 

 basilar length, 26.4; greatest length of nasals, 12.4; greatest width of 

 both nasals together, 4.4; median palatal length, 12.8; greatest breadth 

 of palate between toothrows, 4; diastema, 8; zygomatic breadth, 19; 

 least interorbital breadth, 4.6; breadth of braincase above roots of zygo 

 mata, 14.8; mastoid breadth, 16.6; least depth of rostrum behind inci 

 sors, 6; distance from middle of parietal to lower edge of audital bulla, 

 13.2; mandible, 17; maxillary toothrow (alveoli), 5.4; mandibular tooth- 

 row (alveoli), 5.2. Another skull (male) is somewhat larger; greatest 

 length, 36; basal length, 31; maxillary toothrow, 5.8. 



Specimens examined. Five, all from the type locality. 



Remarks. Aside from the different color pattern of the tail this 

 animal differs from Eliomys quercinus in the strong wood-brown of the 

 upper parts and the very distinct cream color of the ventral surface. In 

 E. quercinus the underparts are clear white slightly tinged with blue, 

 while the white of the tail is all pure. In the Italian animal the only 

 marking that approaches pure white is the terminal area of the tail. 

 From Eliomys pallidus this species differs in the brown (not "light pow 

 dery-looking gray") underparts, distinct black head markings, sharp 

 line of demarkation along sides, and as the description contains no refer 

 ence to the color pattern of tail, probably in this character as well. 



