II. NOTES ON THE TYPE SPECIMENS OF 

 SOME BURMESE AND H 1 1\I A L A Y A N 



RATS. 



By C. BoDEN Kloss, F.Z.S. 



The authorities of the Indian Museum have recently lent me for 

 examination the types of some long-described species in the collec- 

 tions at Calcutta, and these slight notes on some little-known 

 animals and little-studied material may be of use to workers on 

 Eastern mammals. 



Rattus bowcrsi (Anderson). 



Miis boivcrsi, Anderson, Anat. and Zool. Res., p. 304, pi. wii (1S78). 



Thomas, P.Z.S., i886, p. 62 ; Sclater, P.Z.S., 1890, p. 524, pi. xliv, tig. 



2; id., Cat. Mamni. Ind. Miis., II, p. 62 ('iSqi); Thomas (pavtim), 



Ann. Mas. Civ. Gen. (2a), X (XXX), p. 937 (1892). 

 Epimys boiversi, Thomas, J^oiirn. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. XXI \', p. 



410(1916). 



The type is an adult female with slightly worn teeth collected 

 by Anderson at Hotha, Kakhyen Hills, near Bhamo, Upper Burma. 

 The body, which is preserved in alcohol, no longer serves to indi- 

 cate the colour of the animal in life but shows that the pelage is of 

 the same hispid type as in R. berdmorei (Blyth) and R. ferreocanus 

 (Miller),' being composed of long, slender spines or bristles and a 

 much softer under-fur. 



The skull is in poor condition, as both the zygomata and the 

 whole of the left side of the palate and tooth-row are broken, while 

 the tips of all the incisors are much chipped The species, however, 

 is now well-established and a good number of specimens are avail- 

 able for examination in the South Kensmgton and Genoa Museums. 



Mr. Thomas {Jotirn, Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. XXIV (19 16), 

 p. 409) has forestalled me in a comparison of this species with 

 R. ferreocanus of the Malay Peninsula: while, however^ he had at 

 his disposal numerous specimens of hoi&ersi but only one of ferreo- 

 cawws, there are available to me, on the contrary, several examples 

 of the latter in the collections of the Federated Malay States 

 Museums, but only the type of bower si. 



Thomas states that bower si is larger, having a greatest length 

 of skull of 55 — 57 mm., while that of ferreocanus is about 53 mm. 

 One of three adults skulls of the latter, however, measures 55*5, so 

 it is not impossible that when a larger series is available we shall 



' fVof. Biol. Soc. Washington, Xlli, p. 141), pis. iii, iv. fig. 2 (1900) ; type 

 from Trang, Peninsular Siam. 



