Muridse in the West Indies. 177 



Both the specimens appeal- to represent new species, al- 

 though closely allied to continental forms. 

 The first may be called 



Oryzomys aniillarum, sp. n. 



Size about as in 0. Couesi. General colour dull rufous, 

 rather (though not prominently) richer on the rump and 

 greyer on the head ; black lining of back not prominently 

 marked. Belly dull yellowish, not sharply defined, the hairs 

 slaty grey basally. No blackish ring round eyes. Ears 

 small, their visible external surface blackish and internal 

 yellowish, but in neither case very strongly contrasting with 

 the general colour. Hands and feet dull whitish above. Tail 

 apparently about as long as the head and body, very thinly 

 haired, almost naked, pale brownish above, rather lighter 

 below. 



Skull strongly built, with well-defined evenly divergent 

 supraorbital ridges. Nasals well surpassing frontal processes 

 of premaxilke posteriorly. Interparietal small and narrow. 

 Palatal foramina narrow, rather compressed, not widely open. 

 Back of palate extending behind 7n.^ a distance about equal 

 to the diameter of that tooth. 



Dimensions of the type (measured in skin) : — 



Head and body (apparently stretched) 130 millira. ; tail 

 (imperfect at tip) 130; hind foot, without claws (moistened), 

 28; ear (moistened) 13. 



Skull : basal length (c.) 26, basilar length (c.) 24 ; greatest 

 breadth 17; nasals 12'6x-i'l; interorbital breadth 5 2; 

 breadth of brain-case on squamosals 12*9 ; interparietal 2*8 x 

 8*5; palate length from henselion 14; diastema 8*3; palatal 

 foramina 5*7 X 2'1 ; length of upper molar series 4*6. 



Hah. Jamaica. 



Type B. M. no. 45. 10. 25. 48. Collected by Mr. P. H. 

 Gosse. 



The evident relationship of this Jamaican Oryzomys to the 

 0. Couesi group is distinctly confirmatory of Mr. Chapman's 

 view that the Greater Antilles received their inhabitants from 

 Central America (probably Honduras and Nicaragua) via 

 the Pedro Cays and Jamaica, rather tiian from the North 

 (Florida) or the South (Trinidad), in neither of which regions 

 is any such Oryzomys known. 



Gosse's " Miis saccharivorus " *, the " Cane-piece Rat," is 

 clearly not this species, and is most probably Mas decumanus. 



Besides Mr. Gosse's specimen in the British Museum there 



• ' Naturalist in Jamaica,' p. 444. 



