Mnscardimdie from the Iberian Peninsula. 189 



Eliomys. 



Peninsular representatives of this genus were universally 

 known as Eliomys quercinus (or its synonymous ^^ nitela^^) 

 till 1890, when Reuvens named a specimen from Lisbon 

 E. 7iitela, var, lusitanica *. Seven years later Dr. Graells 

 described some Andalucian dormice as E. nitela, var. a/norj' t ; 

 in 1899 a skull from N.W. Spain was re^^arded by Mr 

 Barrett- Hamilton \ as belonging to E. mumhyanus, Porael. 

 Two other Spanish forms have been described by myself, 

 E. hortualis in 1904 and E. hamiltoni as recently as last 

 October §. All these names must be commented on 

 separately. 



E. nitela^ var. lusitanica, Reuvens. — Ty))e locality : Lisbon, 

 Portugal. The type, in the Munich Museum, is brietly 

 described by Reuvens as a " dunkel rostfarbiges Exemplar," 

 and a co-type in the British Museum is, Mr. Miller informs 

 me, quite simih\r to specimens of Eliomys from Seville in the 

 same collection. The name, therefore, is available for a 

 large dark red form living in southern parts of Spain and 

 Portugal, and specifically distinct from quercinus not only on 

 account of its colour, but by the form and size of the skull 

 and by the peculiar colour-pattern of the tail, the underside 

 of which is usually black or blackish in its middle third. 

 This species has been described in detail by Oldfield Thomas || 

 and myself under the name " Eliomys amori, Graells," but on 

 Mr. Miller's suggestion it must be called E. lusitanicus. 



3fyo.rus nilehi. var. amori, Graells. — Type locality : (lor- 

 doba, Andalucia. In the oKl-fashioned original description, 

 based on three specimens, this form is said to be bright red 

 on the back, smaller than quercinus, and with tiie under 

 surface of the tail entirely white. The bad figure that illus- 

 trates it was probably drawn from a brightl}' coloured mounted 

 specimen of E. quercinus from France, in tlie Madrid Museum 

 of Natural Sciences. In the red colour of the body, the 

 description agrees equally with E. lusitanicus and with old 



♦ Reuvens, ' Die Myoxidae oder Schlaefer,' 1890, p. 2S, footnote. 



t Graells, Mem. Ac. Cienc. Madrid, xvii. (1897) p. 481, pi. xvii. 



X Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7) iii. 1899, p. 227. 



§ Bol. Soc. Espan. Hist. Nat. 1907, p. 226. The number of the 

 'Boletin' in which E. hamiltoiii is described is dated June-Julv, but it 

 was really published towards the end of October. Some InsectiVores re- 

 ferred to in the same paper were previously described in the September 

 number of the present Magazine. 



II P. Z. S. 1901, i. p. 41, footnote. 



