12 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



The dark color and lack of buffy patches on the sides of the head 

 and behind the ears in the Black Sea form are no doubt correlated with 

 life in this coastal forest. Apparently A. mystacinus is not closely 

 related to A. epimelas of Europe which is sharply distinguished by the 

 presence of a fourth minute tubercle at the posteroexternal margin 

 of the first and second upper molars. 



Mus MuscuLUS Linne. 



House Mouse. 



Mus musculus Linn6, Syst. nat., ed. 10, 1758, 1, p. 62. 



Three skins from Akaba do not seem different from the form of 

 House Mouse introduced into the eastern United States. Probably 

 at Akaba the typical variety has been introduced by the shipping. 



Mus MUSCULUS ORiExNTALis Cretzschmar. 



Mus orientalis Cretzschmar, Riippell's Atlas reise nordl. Afrika. Saugeth., 

 1826, p. 76, pi. 30, fig. a. 



Four skins are pale-bellied, yet with conspicuous d'usky bases to the 

 white-tipped hairs, and with a buffy line along the sides of the body. 

 They are to be considered as representing orientalis though it seems 

 questionable if they are not better referred to gentilis, of which they 

 would be reckoned a dark extreme. The four specimens are from 

 Akaba, Arabia, and from Rasheya, Hasbeiya, and Shiba, Syria (near 

 Mt. Hermon). 



Mus MUSCULUS GENTILIS Brants. 



WTiite-bellied House Mouse. 



Mus gentilis Brants, Muizen, 1827, p. 126. 



This pale, white-bellied form was taken at Shobek in Arabia and at 

 Wady Kerak and El Kerak in Syria. The hairs of the belly are clear 

 white to the base, or with the very base only light plumbeous. Proba- 

 bly these are the native form of House Mouse. 



