99 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF MUS 



FROM SOUTH INDIA. 



By J. L. BoNHOTB. 



iWith a Plate.'] 



{Read before the Bombay Natural History Society on lUli June, 1898.) 



Owing to the kind intervention of Mr. E. Thurston, of the Madras 

 Museum, the British Museum has been presented by Mr. Charles Grey 

 with a specimen of a mouse which he obtained at Coonoor on the 

 Nilgiri Hills. Being at present interested in j^siatic mammals, 

 Mr. Thomas has handed it to me to work out. It proves to be a new 

 species, distantly allied to Mus musculus, and I would propose for it the 

 name 



Mus FAMULUS, sp. n. 



Allied to M. musculus, but larger, and with, as far as can be judged 

 from the skin, a proportionately shorter tail. Fur long, soft, and 

 close. Ears moderate and rounded, with a few short hairs on the 

 inner side. Colour above dark chocolate-brown, evenly sprinkled 

 with fulvous, below brownish-yellow, not sharply marked off from 

 the colour of the back. Each hair on the back is slatey-grey at 

 the base, shading into dark brown or ending in a light tip. Hands 

 and feet dark brown. Tail of the same colour as the back, rather 

 lighter below, and covered with short hairs. 



The skull is similar in general shape above to that of M. musc\dus, 

 but the muzzle is more elongated, and the bony palate does not extend 

 so far back. The pterygoids are nearly parallel, and do not converge 

 anteriorly. The auditory bulla is rather more elongated. The vertical 

 plate of the zygoma has a straight anterior margin, and is unusually 

 inclined outwards, making the infra-orbital opening considerably wider 

 above than in the allied species. The incisors are simple and flattened 

 laterally ; molars as usual. 



Dimensions of the type, an old specimen, probably a male, measured 

 in skin — 



Head and body 100 mm.; tail 71 mm. ; hind foot 20 mm. ; ear 12 mm. 



Skull. — Basilar length 20 mm. ; basal length 21 mm. ; breadth 12'5 

 mm.; interorbital constriction 4*5 mm. ; nasals 9x2 mm. ; henselion 



