508 Dr. C. I. For?ytli ^lajor on 



common shrew of the continental plain is subspecifically 

 distinct from the lepresentutives of the species occurring in 

 Britain, Scandinavia, or in the mountain-ranges of Euro|)e. 

 Tiie latter are dully coloured forms, whereas tiie shrew of the 

 plain is a large brilliantly tricoloured form, having a band of 

 intermediate colour interposed on the flanks between the 

 colours of the upper and under surfaces. The ajipropriate 

 subspecific name for the shrew of the plains would appear to 

 be S. letragonurus^ Zirnmermanji (Geog. Gescii. &c. ii. p. 383, 

 1780), while Mr. Miller has bestowed on two mountain forms 

 the subspecific names of alticola (from Switzerland) and 

 euronotus (from the Pyrenean foot-hills) — see Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 Wash., April 2'), 1901, pp. 41-45. 



Since the dull coloration of the British water-shrevv entitles 

 it to subspecitic rank, it should be known as Neotni/s fodiens 

 ciliatus (Sowerby), Brit. Misc. t. xlix. p. 103 (1805). 



LXVI. — Notes on European Species of the Subgenus Pitymys 

 {Genus Microtus). By Dr. C. I. Forsyth Major. 



1. Microtus {Pitymys) duodecimcostatus (Selys). 



Arvicola duodecimcostatus , De Selys-Longcliaiups, Rev. Zool., Ann^e 

 1839, p. 8 ; id. Etudes de Microjoiammalogie (Liege, 1839), p. 110, 

 pi. iii. fig. 4 his. 



This species rests on two slcelctons, both presenting the 

 anomaly of twelve (instead of thirteen) ribs^ which De iSelys 

 considered to be a specific character. One of the skeletons 

 is from the neighbourhood of Geneva {'' des environs de 

 Geneve ") ; De Selys had received it from the well-known 

 Geneva palaeontologist Professor Pictet de la Rive : the 

 second skeleton, in the Paris Museum^ is from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Montpellier, Tlie former, being the first 

 mentioned in both the above-quoted papers, must be considered 

 the type of " Arvicola duodecimcostatus." 



The specimen from Montpellier was, in 1854, identified 

 by Z. Gerbe as the " Arvicola incertus, Selys,'' from 

 Southern France, and is therefore a Pitymys. " Ii y a, 

 sous tons les rapports, une si parfaite similitude entre la 

 t6te osseuse de VA. incertus et celle du squclette a douze 

 paires de cotes, que le Museum d'histoire naturelle de Paris 

 tient de M. Olivier, sous le nom de Mus {Arvicola) ceconomus, 

 que je n'hesite pas k identifier ce pretendu Mus ceconomus 



