228 Messrs. H. C. Robinson and C. B. Kloss on 



Epimys orbns, sp. n. 



Type.—MxxM male (skin and skull), No. 61/13, Fede- 

 rated Malay States Museum, collected on Kao Nawng, 

 ^3500 ft., Bandon, N.E. Malay Peninsula, 23rd June, 1913, 

 by H. C. Robinson and E. Seinmnd. Original no. 5641. 



* Characters. — A. rat with very spiny pelage and small flat- 

 tened bullge. Tail very greatly exceeding head and body 

 in length. Lower pelage sharply defined from upper. Tail 

 bicolor, but not markedly so, very slightly penicillate at tip. 



Colour. — Pelage above, as in other rats of the group, 

 composed of three elements : {(i) long black piles, best 

 developed on the lower back, [b) flattened spines with black 

 tips, and (c) soft far, grey at the base, rich ochraceous on 

 the terminal half of the hairs, producing a grizzled ochra- 

 ceous effect darkest on the median line of the back ; cheeks 

 and sides of the head and neck almost pure ochraceous. 

 Under surface white with a creamy tinge, the white ex- 

 tending to the wrists but not to the ankles. Upper surface 

 of hands and feet dirty white with a dark clay-brown median 

 streak, not reaching the base of the digits. Tail bicolor, 

 with fine aunulations, clad with fine silky hairs longer at 

 the tip. 



Skull and teeth. — The skull is not markedly different from 

 those of E. jerdoni bukit and E. cremoriventer, but rather 

 lariicr, the palatal foramina broader, as also the infraorbital 

 plate, and the zygomatic arches less flaring, so that the 

 skull appears relatively narrower. 



Measurements. — Collectors' external measurements (taken 

 in the flesh) : — 



Head and body 153 (141 *) mm. ; tail 235 (188) ; hind 

 foot 32 (26) ; ear 20 (18-5). 



Cranial measurements : greatest length 38-1 (36'4) ; basal 

 length 301 (29-2); palatal length 16-8 (15-8) ; length of 

 nasals 139 (13 0) ; greatest breadth of combined nasals 52 

 (4'6) ; shortest distance between tips of nasals and lachry- 

 mal notch 14-5 (13-1); diastema 9-8 (9-1); upper molar 

 row 6"3 (6*3); length of i)alatal foramina 6*3 (6*2); breadth 

 of combined foramina 3*3 (2-7) ; zygomatic breadth 17-0 

 (17-4) ; cranial breadth 15*9 (14-7). 



S/jecime/ts e.vnm'rni'd. — Five, all fion^. the type-locality. 



Remarks. — Tin; only rat with wliii-h this s[)<>cies requires 

 comparison is Mus cinnamomeus, BIyth f, of which the only 



* Measiirt'inciits in pareiitlieses nre those of an ndult male E. creniori- 

 ?w7^r from (inmmfr Tjuii, 4700 ft., Larut, I'erak ; Federated Malay Stales 

 Mu.seum, No. 180U/li. 



t .lourn. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, xxviii. p. 294 (1859). 



