THE HEBRIDEAN FIELD MOUSE 531 
THE HEBRIDEAN FIELD MOUSE. 
APODEMUS HEBRIDENSIS, de Winton. 
1895. MUS HEBRIDENSIS, W. E. de Winton, Zoologist, October 1895, 369-371; 
described from Uig, Island of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, type specimen, No. 
95.10.25. of British Museum collection; (Afodemus) Miller, Catalogue, 
1912, 824. 
1895. MUS SYLVATICUS HEBRIDENSIS, W. E. de Winton, Zoologist, November 
1895, 426 (designates type specimen); Barrett-Hamilton, Proc. Zool. Soc., 
London, 1900, 403 ; Johnston, Millais, Trouessart. 
1913. APODEMUS SYLVATICUS SYLVATICUS, G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton and M. A. C. 
Hinton, Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1913, 835 (in part). 
History :—De Winton seems to have been the first to record the 
presence of field mice in the Outer Hebrides, where he trapped a 
number of specimens in Lewis in the summer of 1894 (Ann. Scott. Nat. 
Hist., 1895, 53). In the following October (doc. c7¢. supra) he published 
a description of his Mus hebridensis, based on these specimens and 
others taken by Pinney in Barra. Later in the year Steele Elliott 
claimed priority for the discovery, but it appears that his remarks 
refer to the St Kilda Field Mouse, a different form, as, indeed, was 
suggested by de Winton. In the first paper on the mammals from the 
Inner Hebrides (see footnote to p. 422 above) we referred the field 
mice of Great Cumbrae, Arran, Gigha, Islay, Jura, Mull, and Tiree to 
A. sylvaticus. As the result of a detailed investigation of the cranial 
characters the field mice of the islands named, together with those of 
Rum and Eigg, have now to be regarded as local races or sub-species 
of hebridensis. Four of these forms have received names and are 
described below ; it is highly probable that with further material several 
of the other insular races will have to be given sub-specific rank. 
Description :—Size usually larger than in typical sy/vaticus, and of 
stouter build; the feet longer; the tail and ears relatively shorter. 
The coloration varies in the different sub-species ; sometimes the backs 
are dark, as in A. h. hebridensis, maclean, and fiolagan, sometimes rufous, 
with few black hairs, as in cumbre; the underparts sometimes have a 
large pectoral spot, and are more or less generally suffused with buff or 
yellow, as in %. hebridensis ; or the pectoral spot may be quite small or 
absent, and the whole ventral surface nearly clear silver, as in maclean ; 
the line of demarcation may be irregular or straight, clearly or faintly 
defined, the degree to which it is evident being dependent upon the 
colour of the flanks as well as upon that of the ventral surface. 
The cheek-teeth agree in form with those of sy/vaticus. The skull 
is usually (but not in cwmbre) larger than in sylvaticus ; in hamiltonz it 
approaches that of f/avicollis in size. In general appearance it is like 
