On the Water-Voles of Bosnia dac. 223 



specimens). In Collett's specimens the pectorals have 23 

 rays; in Liitken's they have 16-18, in rare cases 19 rays. 

 The variation is accounted for by Liitken as dependent on 

 difference of age. As I have already stated, my specimens 

 have 18 rays, although they are very young. In both 

 specimens the width of the head is greater than that of 

 the body and equal to the length of the pectorals. The 

 eyes are situated much nearer the snout than the neck. The 

 ventrals lie exactly on the line that is supposed to connect 

 the gill-openings at their base. Both individuals are devoid 

 of scales. The mucous membrane of the mouth is white. 



The smaller specimen (from Murchison's Sound) is nearly 

 identical with Liitken's tig. 5 in the ' Dijmphna-Togt ' with 

 regard to both shape and colour. In both specimens the 

 sides of the body and the dorsal are marked with irregular 

 square spots with blackish margins. These spots are smaller 

 and more numerous in the smaller specimen, which is much 

 paler both in prevailing colour and marks. 



Lund, Sweden, 

 May 1895. 



XXX IV. — Note on the Water- Voles of Bosnia, Asia Minor, 

 and Western Persia. By G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON. 



In looking over the specimens of Water- Voles preserved in the 

 British Museum collection I find examples of two forms from 

 Bosnia and Asia Minor which I am unable to associate with 

 any of the known subspecies found in Western Europe, and 

 one of which at least seems to me to have been hitherto un- 

 described. 



The Water-Voles of Western Europe, as is well known, 

 have been the subject of a good deal of species-making, and 

 our knowledge of the synonymy and relations of the various 

 local races or subspecies is at present in a rather confused 

 condition. My friend Mr. Gerrit S. Miller, Junior, Assistant 

 Curator of Mammals at Washington, whose masterly paper 

 "On the Genera and Subgenera of Voles and Lemmings"* 

 has already cleared away so many difficulties, has, in addition, 

 imposed upon himself the task of unravelling the tangle which 

 surrounds the subgenus Arvicola, Lacepede, to which the 

 Water- Voles belong. As I do not wish to anticipate anything 



* U.S. Department Agriculture (Div. of Orn. & Mamm.) : North- 

 American Fauna, no. 12 (July 23, 1896). 



