8 Records, of the Indian Museum. [Voi,. XIII, 



5. Rattus biythi, 110m. nov. 



Mks ciuiianionieiis, \i\yth, 'jfoitni. Asia f. Soc. Bengal. XXX'III, p. 2^4 



(1859) ; /(/., op. cit., XXXII, p. 341 (1863). 

 Mtis fitlvescens, Thomns- (parfhn), P.Z.S., 1881, p. 537 ; Sclater, P.Z.S., 



1890, p. 524; id.. Cat. MdDim. hid. Mits., II, p. 69 f 1891"). 



Mtis cinnamomeus , Blyth, was described from two individuals 

 collected by Berdmore at Shwegyin, Tenasserim, one of which has 

 been mounted while the other is a skin in alcohol: both are ac- 

 companied by somewhat damaged skulls. 



I propose to regard specimen {a) of Sclater's catalogue as the 

 type for Blyth's name; for the measurements given by him, in 

 his first account, were obviously made on a skin, while it is highly 

 improbable that the colours he gave were recorded from the spirit 

 specimen when another was available. 



The mounted individual is in poor condition, the ears are 

 very imperfect and the entire tail is missing. 



The absence of the latter is unfortunate ; for apart from the 

 greater size of the animal, the impression conveyed by its pelage 

 is that it is a member of the cr emonventer gro\n^,^ distinguished by 

 the slightly pencillate, unicoloured tail (of which a large form, 

 E. tenaster^ has recently been described by Thomas from Mt. Muleyit, 

 Tenasserim, 5000 ft.).^ On the whole the spines of the dorsal pelage 

 are much slenderer than those of cremoriventer but a few are present 

 which approach them in breadth and stiffness. 



The skull, with teeth only sHghtly worn, closely resembles 

 those of aged examples of cremoriventer and appears to differ onl}^ 

 in narrower, less spatulate nasals and broader ante-orbital plates : 

 the bullae are quite of the '' jerdoni'^ type — small, flattish and 

 but little dilated. 



The upper incisors are, however, much more curved back- 

 wards and both pairs are ivory-i&hite with no tinge of orange on 

 the exposed portion — a character quite unknown in any rats of 

 this section. On account of these features I think we must regard 

 this rat as an example of a distinct species, and since the name 

 cinnamomeus is preoccupied (Pictet, Not. Anim. Nouv. Mus. Gen., 

 1844, p. 64. pi. xix) I propose to call it hlythi after its first 

 describer. 



The pelage was said to have originally the upper parts as 

 bright, or scarcely less so, as the British dormouse ; of a fine 

 cinnamon colour with inconspicuous black tips, the under parts 

 white abruptly divided from the cinnamon hue alDOve. Length of 

 head and body about 152; tail, 197; hindfoot, 32 mm. 



The colour of the dorsal fur to-day is perhaps best described 

 as somewhat between the '' ochraceous-orange " and " ochraceous- 

 tawny " of Ridgway^ and grey at the base. The pure white 



i Miller, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wasliii/gtoii, XIII, p. 144, pi. v, figs. 2, a. b, c ( igoo). 

 2 Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (8) XVII, p. 425 (1916). 



i Colour Sfniidayds nyid Nunieiiclatiiye, 1912. 



