214 RHIZOMYS SUMATUENSIS. 



the Indian continent several other species of large Mice 

 belonging to the genus Rhizomijs; so it might have hap- 

 pened that in Sumatra too a distinct species, quite diffe- 

 rent from Rafiles' sumatrensU, had been procured — what a 

 confusion would have been the indispensable and unevitable 

 consequence ! 



And indeed the genus Rhizomys is represented in Suma- 

 tra, as irrefragably demonstrated by individuals in the Ley- 

 den Museum captured in East-Sumatra, Deli: happily they 

 belong without the slightest doubt to sumatrensis RaflQes 

 from the continent! 



The first intelligence of its existence in Sumatra we had 

 by receiving a skull, presented with a large collection of 

 other animals from Deli to our Museum by the untiring 

 Dr. Hagen in 1882; ten years later I bought a skeleton 

 collected by Mr. Moesch in Sumatra; in 1891 Prof. Hubrecht 

 procured a very young specimen from West-Sumatra, Loe- 

 boek Basong, between the lake of Mauindjoe and Priaman ; 

 finally in 1895 I procured a specimen from the Zoological 

 garden in the Hague, where it had lived for some time, 

 being sent over by Mr. Goedhart at Medan, Deli; so that 

 we possess at present one stuffed skin , two skeletons and 

 one skull , all originating from Sumatra. The three skulls 

 from Sumatra agree exactly with the skulls of sumatrensis 

 from the continent, as we possess two skulls from Malacca 

 to compare the Sumatra-skulls with. 



Our stuSed specimen is silvery white colored, here and 

 there a single dark colored hair is to be found. The tail 

 is like that organ in our Malacca-specimens absolutely 

 destitute of scales and not a single hair is to be detect- 

 ed upon it even not with the aid of a lens. Raffles des- 

 cribed the tail as » scaly"; in Flower and Lydekker's 

 Introduction, 1891, p. 477, the tail in the genus Rhizomys 

 is mentioned as »partially hairy". Dr. Anderson monogra- 

 phing the genus says (Yunnan Expedition, 1878, p. 321), 

 that in Rhizomys »the tail is perfectly nude and there are 

 no scales". 



Notes froxn tlae Leyden JMuseum , Vol. XVIII. 



