ALTICOLA 311 



specimen m^ possesses only two and not three internal angles, 

 and its thumb is distinctly clawed, characters which suffice to 

 distinguish it from A. roylei and to indicate that it should be 

 referred to some species of Hyperacrius. 



Jerdon (Mammals of India, 1867, p. 216) referred specimens 

 which he obtained " in Kunawar, near Chini, at an elevation of 

 nearly 12,000 feet, and again on the south side of the Barendo 

 Pass, at about the same height" to this species; he stated 

 further that he had " observed it in the Pir Punjal pass." The 

 voles at the latter locality were no doubt Hyperacrius fertilis, a 

 species described much later by True; those that he collected 

 at the other localities named most probably belonged to other 

 species and not to A. roylei. 



Lastly in 1916 Wroughton (J. Bombay N.H.S., 24, p. 491) 

 referred the voles collected in Sikkim by Crump for the Bombay 

 Natural History Society's Mammal Survey to this species. 

 But these specimens are, I find, all referable to Neodon 

 sikimensis. 



Characters. — A. roylei is characterized by its dark colour; 

 moderately short, imperfectly clothed, and bicoloured tail; 

 strongly built skull ; small auditory bullae ; and heavy cheek- 

 teeth, in which m^ always possesses a well-developed third inner 

 angle. Size medium ; hind-foot 18-20 mm. ; condylo-basal length 

 of skull up to 27-3 mm. 



Fur soft and full, though rather short ; measuring about 13 mm. 

 in length on centre of back. General colour of upper parts a rich 

 dark brown, resulting from a fine mixture of dark brown and 

 blackish hair-tips and ochraceous subterminal hair-bands ; under 

 parts grey, darkened by the slaty bases of the hairs, and (according 

 to the subspecies) with or without a well-marked rusty suffusion ; 

 no sharp division between dorsal and ventral surfaces along the 

 flanks. Tail about one-third of the length of the head and body, 

 dark brown above, greyish- white below; clothed with a com- 

 paratively scanty growth of rather short stiff hairs, which leave 

 the scaly annulations plainly visible and form only a short and 

 thin terminal pencil. Hands and feet greyish-white above; 

 palms with 5, soles with 6 tubercles; soles behind pads hairy, 

 though not very densely so; hairs on dorsal surfaces of digits 

 comparatively short and sparse, not concealing the short claws. 

 Mamma3, 2 — 2 = 8. 



Skull, when fully adult, strongly built, moderately ridged and 

 angular. Zygomatic arches rather widely bowed, the zygomatic 

 breadth sometimes exceeding 60% of the condylo-basal length. 

 Temporal ridges diverging rather slowly behind the coronal 

 suture, so that in adult skulls a considerable antero-external 

 portion of each parietal bone is included in the corresponding 

 temporal fossa. Anterior palatal foramina moderately large, 

 extending backwards almost to the plane of the molars. Post- 

 molar region rather short. Auditory bullae small and rounded. 



