334 MICROTIN^ 



1. Hyperacrius fertilis True. 

 (Synonymy under subspecies.) 



Range. — Mountains of Kashmir at altitudes between 6000 

 and 13,000 feet. 



Characters. — Size small, hind-foot 15-17 mm. ; condylo-basal 

 length to 25 mm. Fur short and dense, not specially modified. 



Colour dark reddish-brown above passing insensibly into dull 

 ochraceous below ; belly irregularly darkened by slaty bases of 

 the hairs. Tail about one-fifth of the head and body length; 

 obscurely bicoloured, sepia above, dirty white below. Feet 

 dusky. 



Skull small, with a rather broad and much flattened brain- 

 case, the zygomatic arches running backwards at an unusually 

 high level in relation to its upper surface. Interstephanic 

 portion of frontals relatively rather more reduced in adults 

 than in H. wynnei, but subject to a good deal of individual 

 variation. Nasals often terminating in a sharp point behind, 

 much pinched between the ascending branches of the premaxil- 

 laries. Anterior palatal foramina rather large, not greatly 

 constricted posteriorly. Lateral bridges of palate slender; 

 palatal shelf often with an irregular, short, but perfectly horizontal 

 median projection; post-palatal lateral pits with well-defined, 

 though not particularly salient inner edges, which run forwards 

 and curve ventrally to join the dorsal surface of the palatal 

 shelf at some little distance beyond its edge. Other characters 

 as described under the genus. 



Cheek-teeth (Fig. 95a) with the pattern and structure 

 characteristic of the genus. 



Subspecies. — Two forms, hitherto regarded as specifically 

 distinct, are in this work treated as subspecies of H. fertilis. 

 In the typical H. /. fertilis the ears are large, equalling or 

 even overtopping the fur ; in H. f. brachelix they are small and 

 hidden. But the extremes are connected by a continuous series 

 of gradations and at the most H. brachelix can only be regarded 

 as subspecifically separable from H. fertilis. 



la. Hyperacrius fertilis fertilis True. 



1867. Arvicola roylei Jerdon, Mammals of India, p. 216 (in part). 

 Not of Gray. 



1894. Arvicola fertilis True, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., 17, p. 10. 



1896. Microfus (Hyperacrius) fertilis Miller, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 12, 

 p. 54; Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1899, p. 289; Wrough- 

 ton, " Summary," J. Bombay N.H.S., 27, 1920, p. 61. 



Type.— U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 4|^^; adult female, skin and 

 skull, collected August 30, 1891, by Dr. W. L. Abbott. 



Type locality. — Pir Panjal Mountains, Kashmir. Altitude 

 8500 feet. 



Range. — Central Kashmir, extending northwards perhaps to 



