( 598 ) 



2. Mus verecundus spec. nov. 



A peculiarly built species, with long slender feet. Mammae 1 — 2 = 0. 



Size about as in Mus rattus. Fur soft and straight, hairs of back about 

 15 mm. in length, a small number of softer piles, about 20 mm. long, intermixed 

 on the hinder back. Whiskers unusually] strong and numerous. General colour 

 above sepia-brown, faintly "ticked"* with bnffy. Undersurfiice dull slaty buffy, 

 not defined laterally, the bases of the hairs broadly slate-coloured, the tips dull 

 bufty ; chin not lighter. Head greyish, darker than back, and with less buffy 

 suffusion. Ears short, laid forward in a spirit specimen they barely reach to 

 the middle of the eye, practically naked, slaty grey. Arms and legs coloured 

 like the body, scarcely lighter on their inner surfaces ; upper surface of metacarpus 

 brown, digits white; hindfeet unusually long and slender, the lengthening being 

 mainly in the metatarsus ; soles naked, smooth, the last pad elongate, fifth 

 hindtoe nearly reaching (without claw) to the middle of the first phalanx of the 

 fourth ; upper surface of metatarsus brown, digits lighter. Tail rather longer 

 than the head and body, evenly ringed (scale-rings about 10 to the centimetre), 

 finely haired, not pencilled, though rather more hairy terminally; hairs about I5 — 

 2 scales in length; uniformly brown above and below, the terminal | in. white. 

 Mammae 1 — 2 = 6 ; the anterior behind the axillae ; clitoris very long. 



Skull smooth and rounded, the braincase small and the muzzle remarkably 

 long. Nasals long, narrow behind, much expanded anteriorly. Supraorbital 

 edges, even in old specimens, but very slightly ridged, the ridges quite incon- 

 spicuous where they cross the parietals. Interparietal fairly large. Anterior 

 edge of zygomatic plate slanting, scarcely convex. Palatal foramina large, 

 widely open, just reaching to the level of the front root of m'. Palate ending 

 well behind m'. Bullae small. 



Incisors narrow, smooth in front. Molars worn down in both Aroa 

 specimens, but apparently — and in the Dinawa sjiecimens — of a very simple 

 murine type. In one of the latter examples, young, the molars, as compared 

 with those of Mus rattus, are ystj similar, with the exception that there is no 

 antero-external supplementary cusp on m-, or external one on the second lamina 

 of m,. 



Dimensions of the type, measured in skin : — 



Head and body (stretched), 170 t mm. ; tail, 168 ; hindfoot, 34 ; ear, 18. 



Skull, greatest length, 40-.'5 mm. ; basilar length, 32 ; zygomatic breadth, 

 18; nasals, 15*2x4-8; interorbital breadth, G ; breadth of braincase, 16 ; inter- 

 parietal, 5x9; zygoma root, 3'4 ; palate length from henselion, 18'6 ; diastema, 11 ; 

 palatal foramina, 7-1x3; length of upper molar series, 6"7. 



Ilab. Avera, Aroa River, British New Guinea. 



Tf/pe: an old fe male. B. M. No. 3. 12. 1. 1. Collected May 31st, 1003, 

 by A. S. Meek. 



Two specimens. 



Two other specimens, in spirit, apparently of the same species, were collected 

 at Dinawa, Owen Stanley liauge, altitude 4000 ft., by Mr. A. E. Pratt. 



* From the French tiqvete. A word to express a colour smoother and less coarsely variegated than 

 " grizzled " or " mottled " is often wanted in writing descriptions of mammals, and " ticked " might 

 be made to serve the purpose. 



t True head and body length probably about 150 mm. 



I 



