ART. 1 MAMMALS FROM CHINA HOWELL 61 



the back. Below there is more variation. The majority have a 

 strongly ochraceous overwash but in many the underparts are 

 grayer, this evidently being due to the wearing away of the hair tips. 

 There is invariably some ochraceous about the chest, however. In 

 but three is there a white pectoral area. The brown of the fore feet 

 is not always sufficiently pronounced to be distinguishable if the 

 specimen is at all dirty or greasy. In the Kiangsu skulls the infra- 

 orbital laminae of the maxillae average shorter, but their separation 

 on this character alone is hardly justifiable at present. 



RATTUS GRISEIPECTUS (Milne-Edwards) 



Mus griseipcctus Milne-Edwakds, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat., vol. 7, 1871, 

 p. 93 (Szechwan, China). 



/Specimens. — Four: 70 miles southwest of Yenpingfu, Fukien, 1; 

 and Yochow, Hunan, 3. 



The adult from Fukien measures as follows: head and body, 167; 

 tail, 183; and hind foot, 36. The total length of the skull is 44 mm. 

 Two of the Hunan specimens are alcoholics. The third is much 

 brighter than the one from Fukien and correspondingly more nearly 

 resembles humiliatus in appearance, but the size of the skull with 

 large rostrum and long tail is always sufficient to separate the two 

 species. The identification of the two alcoholics is tentative. 



RATTUS NORVEGICUS CARACO (Pallas) 



Mus caraco Pallas, Nov. Spec. Quad. Glir. Ord., 1878, p. 91 (eastern Siberia). 



Specimens. — Seventeen from Manchuria : Imienpo, 2, 60 miles 

 southwest of Kirin, 6, and 120 miles northeast of Sansing, 9. 



This rat is differentiated from typicus chiefly by its dark color, less 

 decidedly brown. 



RATTUS NORVEGICUS SOGER (Miller) 



Epimys norvcgicus socer IMiller, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., vol. 27, 1914, p. 90 

 (Taochow, Kansn, China). 



Specimens. — Sixty-eight : Tientsin, 2 ; Peking, 20 ; 80 miles east of 

 Peking, 16, 65 to 75 miles northeast of Peking, 7 ; and Chingwangtao, 

 Chihli, 1; Taochow, 5 (including the type); Lanchow, 2; and 

 Archuen in the Minshan Mountains, Kansu, 2 ; Suif u, Szechwan, 10 ; 

 Canton, Kwangtung, 2 ; and Amoy Island, Fukien, 1. 



The majority of these specimens are distinguishable from an aver- 

 age of north European examples of the brown rat but along the 

 coast and larger rivers of China there is bound to have been an 

 infusion of rats brought in by shipping and the correct identifica- 

 tion of all specimens in the case of two such slightly differentiated 

 races is manifestly impossible. The Suifu skins are definitely 

 browner of belly and darker of back, but they were made up from 

 salted pelts and one cannot place reliance in these characters. 



