596 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



MUS CLABATUS, new species, 



Type.— Old adult female, skin and skull, Cat. No. 124888, U.S.N.M., 

 collected at Klfbat Bay, island of Banka, ea;^t of Sumatra, June 25, 

 1904, by Dr. W. L. Abbott. Original number 3439. 



Diag7iostic characters. — A member of the Mus coiicolor group, most 

 like Mus surdus Miller, from Simalur Island, from Avhich it is indistin- 

 guishable externall}", but differing from it and the other members of 

 the group in the shape of the external plate of the infraorbital foramen. 

 This plate in Mus clahatus is narrow antero-posteriorly and its anterior 

 edge is inclined backward instead of ascending vertically. 



Color. — Type: Entire upper parts and sides, a coarse ill-defined griz- 

 zle of dull ochraceous buff' and blackish brown, the former more con- 

 spicuous along the sides. Underparts and inner surface of limbs a 

 dirty grayish white. A fairly well-defined line of demarcation between 

 the color of the sides and the belly. Ears, brownish, darker exter- 

 nally, lightly sprinkled with fine brownish hairs inside and out. Feet 

 dirty white. Tail dark uniformly brownish, twelve scales to the cen- 

 timeter along the middle. Three brownish hairs subtend each scale 

 and about middle of tail equal in length 1^ scales; at tip of tail they 

 equal about 2 scales in length. 



Mammse. — Inguinal 2-2; pectoral 2-2 = 8. 



Skull and teeth. — The skull differs from that of all the members of 

 tho, Mus Goncolor group that I have examined in the narrow external 

 plate of the infraorbital foramen. The anterior edge of this plate 



