neio South- American Rodents. 241 



leni^th. General colour finely speckled grey, with practi- 

 cally none of the warm biiffy tone suffusing tiie colour o£ 

 both griseogena and the Mcrida highland subspecies S. g. 

 meridensis. Under surface bright ochraceous buff, a few 

 liairs in the axillae white. Crown and muzzle grizzled with 

 buffy, paler than in griseogena. Ears darker buffy brown, 

 contrasting with the grey of the head ; light patclu-s behind 

 them scarcely perceptible. Forearms and hamls strong 

 buffy, tiie olive bases of the hairs showing but little ; the 

 feet, however, are rather olive-grey, brightem d by the buffy 

 tips of the hairs, especially along the hallucal border. Tail 

 grizzled greyish for its basal half, its next tvvo-tifths washed 

 with buft'y neither so deep nor so extended as in griseojena, 

 its tip black. 



Skull as in griseogena. 



Dimensions of the type (as measured by collector) : — 



Head and body 192 mm. ; tail 190; hind foot -46 ; 

 ear 25. 



Skull : greatest length 49 ; condylo-incisive length 44 ; 

 front of />* to back of m^ 9"3. 



Hah. Galifar^, Cerro del Avila, near Caracas, Venezuela. 

 Alt. 6500'. 



Type. Subadult female. B.M. no. 14. 7. 27. 3. Original 

 number 16. Collected 12th February, 1914, by Mr. S. M. 

 Klages. Presented by the Hon. N. Charles Rothschild. 



While the highland subspecies of Merida is of the same 

 warm hue as iy]i\v^\ griseogena, this form from the mountains 

 near Caracas is distinguishable by its clear greyish colour 

 and the lesser extent of the buffy on the middle of the tail. 

 Osgood's 6'. g. tamce, from the Upper Tachira River, is said 

 to be paler than meridensis, but, as its locality is on the 

 opposite side of meridensis from the present, it obviously 

 cannot be the same form as the Caracas squirrel. 



Oryzomys alhigularis mcerex, subsp. n. 



A dark form of the alhigularis group. 



General characters of alhigularis, but colour conspicuously 

 darker. Body-colour near Front's brown, the sides rather 

 more fulvous, but the whole area of the back darkened with 

 an intermixture of black. Whole of head blackish grey, 

 like the muzzle of alhigularis. Under surface of the usual 

 slaty washed with creamy white, but no white pectoral 

 patches present (in sixteen specimens). Front of forearms 

 and whole of lower legs dark blackish grey. Tail blackish 

 above, irregularly whitish below. 



Ann. dc Mag. X. Hist. Ser. 8. Vol xiv. 16 



