ALTICOLA 321 



particulars : " Only known from the two specimens mentioned 

 below from the Kuenlun Mountains in Northern Ladak. 



a. Skin, skull. Aktagh, Yarkand River, 13-10-73. F. 

 Stoliczka. 



h. Skin. Nubra Valley. Dr. Bellew. 



[Co-types of A. stoliczkanus Blanford.] " 



Type locality. — Kuenlun Mountains, Northern Ladak. 



Range. — Known only from the vicinity of the type locality. 



Characters. — A brown-backed, short-tailed species, with 

 reduced m^. 



Fur soft, and rather woolly. General colour bright ferruginous 

 brown above, white below, the two colours sharply divided. Fur 

 dark leaden-grey at base ; the terminal fourth of the shorter 

 hairs on the back rufous white, tipped with dark rufous. With 

 these are intermixed numerous rather longer hairs with dark 

 rufous-brown tips. Ears small, completely CJDncealed in the 

 fur; clothed with short, bright rufous hair towards the margin 

 inside and with longer and paler hair outside. Feet and tail 

 white. Feet small, armed with long compressed claws, which 

 are much concealed by long w^hite hairs; thumb vestigial and 

 clawless; palms and soles hairy, with a few hairs between the 

 digital pads. Tail short, about one-fourth of the length of the 

 head and body, covered with stifE fulvescent-white hair, which 

 extends for half an inch beyond the tail-tip. 



Skull rather large (condylo-basal length about 29 mm.), its 

 special characters unknown. Incisors deep yellow in front; the 

 upper pair described as having a very shallow groove down the 

 centre, but this is probably an individual peculiarity. 



Cheek-teeth generally as in the genus ; m^ reduced, much as in 

 A. stracheyi, but with the posterior loop " much less than half the 

 length of the tooth, with three outer and two inner salient angles, 

 and some slight trace of a fourth outer angle behind." 



For external and cranial measurements, see tables at end of 

 volume. 



11. Alticola stracheyi Thomas. 



1851. Cricetus songarus Horsfield, Catal. Eastlnd. Mus., p. 145. Not 



of Pallas. 

 1880. Arvicola stracheyi Thomas, Ann. Mag. N.H., [5], 6, p. 332; 



Blanford, J.A.S. Bengal, 50, pt. 2, 1881, p. 98 (section AUxcola). 

 1891. Arvicola {Alticola) stracheyi Sclater, Catal. Mamm. Ind. Mus., 



pt. 2, p. 90. 

 1891. Microtus stracheyi Blanford, Fauna Brit. India, Mamm., 



p. 431. 

 1896. Microtus (Alticola) stracheyi Miller, X. Amer. Fauna, No. 12, 



p. 54 ; Proc. Acad Nat. 8ci. Philadelphia, 1899, p. 292 ; Wroughton, 



'• Summary," J. Bombay N.H.S., 27, 1920, p. 60. 

 1899. Microtus cricctulus Miller, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 



1899, p. 294 [subgenus Alticola]; described from Tso-Kvun, 



Ladak; altitude 10,000 feet [type : U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 84043). 



