404 MFRID.I:. 



Colour brown, not dark nor rufous, above, white or buffy white 

 below. Basal f of dorsal hair dark leaden grey, terminal portion 

 light brown (fawn-colour), passing into darker brown at the end. 

 A few longer black tips are scattered on the back. Ventral fur 

 white throughout. A dark mark generally on each hind foot, 

 remainder of the feet white. Tail dark throughout. 



Dimensions of a male in spirit : head and body 3 inches, tail 4-5, 

 ear 0-6, hind foot 0-75. A skull measures 0'93'in length. 



Distribution. Khasi hills, Kakhyen hills, near Bhamo, Manipur, 

 Schwe (ryeng, Malacca, Java, and Borneo. 



Genus MUS, Linn. (1766). 



Form slender. Muzzle pointed ; tail long, scaly. Fur soft or 

 spiny, the spines when present fine and mixed with hair. Pollex 

 rudimentary, with a small flat nail, all other toes (except in 

 M. cliiropus) with compressed claws. 

 Molars tubercular in the young ; the 

 tubercles of the upper molars in a triple 

 longitudinal row, of the lower molars in 

 a double row. The teeth when worn 

 crossed by curved or folded transverse 

 laminae. Incisors smooth, not grooved 

 nor sculptured. Vertebrae : C. 7, D. 13, 

 L. 6, S. 4, C. 26-32. 



Thegeuus is cosmopolitan and is largely 

 a b represented in India. A great number 



Fig. 131.-() Upper and of S l )ecific f na ! n f ^ ^ P*? 



(b) lower right molars of various naturalists, and owing to im- 



M. rattm (M. rufescens), perfect descriptions, and to the difficulty 



X 4. of comparing the types, many of which 



were in England, Blyth in ' A Memoir 



of the Eats and Mice of India,' published in 1863 (J. A. S. B. 

 xxxii, p. 327), could only collect together the descriptions of 

 about 50 nominal forms and indicate their affinities. Jerdon 

 followed Blyth, and it was not until Thomas in 1881 re-examined 

 Gray's and Hodgson's trapes with the aid of a large collection of 

 Indian specimens that any important reduction of the overgrown 

 list of names could be effected. Some additional identifications of 

 Blyth's and Anderson's species have since been made by Mr. 

 Thomas, and a few more are now added by the examination of 

 some of Blyth's types, for the loan of which 1 am indebted to the 

 Trustees of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and to Mr. W. L. Sclater, 

 who has independently examined the series in the Calcutta Museum 

 and has come to conclusions that agree with my own (P, Z. S. 

 1890, p. 522). In the present work, by the aid of several observers, 

 an attempt is made to identify all Indian, Ceylonese, and Burmese 

 species hitherto described. 



