10 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



European skins yet probably falls Avithin the limits of individual 

 variation. Skins froni the Harz Moinitains of Germany and others 

 from Switzerland match it very closely. The feet are a little small 

 and the skull, compared with those from Europe having equally 

 worn teeth, is a trifle smaller, yet in both these respects it can be 

 duplicated in the European series. The braincase seems smaller, 

 howe\er, and the angle formed by the sides of the frontoparietal 

 suture is more acute Additional specimens from Palestine may 

 show that the local representatives of the species are entitled to rank 

 as a separate race. 



The immature specimen is in the slaty gray pelage, and though 

 taken June 1st, is fairly well grown (total length 190 mm.), indicating 

 as Barrett-Hamilton has suggested, that it breeds early in the year. 



Apodemus myst acinus (Danford and Alston). 

 Gray ^Yood IMouse. 

 Mus mystacinns Daiiford and Alston, Proc. Zool. soc. London, 1877, p. 279. 



A series of fourteen skins, young and adult, represents this species, 

 which seems to be rare in collections. All are from the region about 

 the base of Mt. Hermon, and correspond in all details with the original 

 description. The young, unlike those of the sylvaticus group, are col- 

 ored practically like the adults, though the fawn tints on the sides of 

 the face and body brighten slightly with age. The original series in 

 the British jSIuseum comprised three specimens, two at least in alcohol, 

 collected in the Bulgar Dagh region of southern Asia Minor. The pale 

 coloration is typical of the dry country in which this mouse lives, 

 and Mr. Oldfieid Thomas (Ann.' mag. nat. hist., 1903, ser. 7, 12, p. 18S) 

 has lately described an even paler race, A. m. smyniouns, from ex- 

 treme western Asia ISIinor at Smyrna. In this race the hairs of the 

 lower surfaces are pure white to the roots instead of having slaty bases. 



Through Mr. Thomas's kirrdness the M. C. Z. has received in ex- 

 change a specimen referred to mystacinus taken in the forest belt 

 bordering the Black Sea, an area \ery different faimally from the arid 

 country to the south. Dr. Phillips's fine series representing typical 

 mystacinus shows that the Black Sea animal, as might be expected, is 

 very different in color. It is much darker, and almost without the 

 buffv tints of the former. It mav bo known as 



