170 



Specimens Examined. — Six Bkhis and nine skulls, all from the 

 type locality. 



Remarks. — This race is readily separated from the mainland form 

 by its much larger size, which is especially marked in the hind feet. 



The series before us is vei-y uniform both in size and in colouration, 

 and does not differ from a further series of eight now in the British 

 Museum, which were collected at the same time. 



•2. MUS SURIFER LEONIS, s-iibsp. nov. 



Type.- Adult male (skin and skull), No. 1,882/08, Selangor 

 Museum. Collected at Changi, at the north-east corner of Singapore 

 Island, by H. C. Robinson and E. Seimimd, on the 22nd July, 1908. 

 Original No. 1,048. 



Characters. — Like Mns snrifer from Trang, but more brilliantly 

 tawny and size considerably smaller. Skull smaller with cranium 

 rounder and relatively broader. 



Colour. — Above brilliant tawny, sprinkled on the dorsal area and 

 rump with brownish black : head, cheeks, sides of neck, shoulders and 

 thighs, and sides along the line of demarcation from the belly, clear 

 orange tawny. Under parts white, this colour extending to hands and 

 roots of the vibrissae and scarcely cut off from the white feet by the 

 tawny colour of the outer thighs. A narrow tawny gorget across the 

 chest. Tail bicoloured with terminal half white. 



Skull and Teeth.- — The skull in the broader and more globose 

 cranium resembles rather the race dwelling in Terutau and Langkawi 

 Islands than the mainland animal : the posterior terminations of the 

 nasals are narrower than in the related forms. 



Measurements. — Collector's external measurements taken in the 

 flesh : head and body, 172 ; tail, 179 ; hind foot, 41 ; ear, 23 mm. 



The average measurements of thirty specimens are : head and body, 

 170.3; tail, 176.3; hind foot, 39.3; ear, 22.6 mm. 



Cranial measurements of the type : greatest length, 43.1 ; basilar 

 length, 32.5; palatilar length, 17.9; breadth between anterior molars, 

 4 ; length of palatal foramina, 6.1 ; breadth of combined foramina, 3.2 ; 

 diastema, 12.2 ; length of upper molar row, 6.2 ; length of nasals, 15.8 ; 

 interorbital breadth, 6.9; ci'anial breadth, 16.4; zygomatic breadth, 

 18.5 mm. 



Specimens Examined. — Thirty from the type locality. 



Remarks. — Of the series the dullest are slightly brighter than the 

 typical Peninsular animals, while the size is also decidedly less ; but if 

 this were dwe to immaturity, we should find them darker in colour. 



When we first collected these rats we were struck with the differences 

 as noted,* and re-examination of very large series of the allied forms, 

 including topotypes of the typical race, confirms us in the opinion 

 already expressed. 



* .TouTO. Fort. Malfiy States Miisouins, iv, p. 12.j (1909), 



