40 DR. O. THOMAS ON MYOXUS ELEGANS. [Feb. 3, 



clear fulvous-orange ; the same colour reappears in the hiud part of 

 the abdomen and the under tail-coverts. 



But the greatest diiference between our new species and A. atri- 

 capiUa is to be seen in the structure and colour of the back-feather.s 

 and the scapulars, these being very narrow, elongate and lanceolate, 

 and of a peculiar sea-green colour, with hoary margins, in A. atrica- 

 pilla ; they are broader, shorter, much less lanceolate, and of a 

 pure and uniform bronze-green in A. rutenbergi. 



The measurements in both birds are nearly the same. 



The fine adult type specimen of A. rutenbergi, from which this 

 description is taken, is in the Hamburg Museum of Natural History. 

 I have named the species after my much-lamented young countryman, 

 Mr. Christian Rutenberg, who was murdered by the savage tribes of 

 the west coast of Madagascar. I see from his diary, that he had 

 been eager in collecting and preparing birds ; and it is certainly much 

 to l)e regretted that in all probability his collections are lost. 



Dr. I^ichenow, of the Berlin Museum, to whose experienced eye I 

 have submitted this little Heron, fully participates in my opinion of 

 its being different from any of the congeneric species. 



2. On the Myoxus elegans of Temmiuck. By Oldpield 

 Thomas, F.Z.S., Assistant in the Zoological Department, 

 British Museum. 



[Received January 20, 1880.] 



The British Museum has lately received a specimen of a small 

 Dormouse obtained by Mr. H. Pryer near Yokohama, which agrees 

 in every respect with Temminck's Myoxus elegans, described and 

 figured in the 'Fauna Japonica' (1842). This name had, however, 

 been unfortunately preoccupied by Ogilby for a South-African 

 species ', and now stands as one of the synonyms of Graphiurus 

 capensis, F. Cuv.^ I am therefore under the necessity of renaming 

 the .Japanese form ; and I would propose for it the name of Myoxus 

 lasiotis, the tufts of hair at the base of its ears being its most 

 noticeable external character. 



This animal by its external form appears to be, as Temmiuck re- 

 marks, very closely allied to the common European Muscardinus 

 avellanarius, agreeing more or less with that species both in size, 

 colour, and proportions ; but on examining its viscera, 1 find that 

 there is no trace whatever of that extraordinary complication of the 

 stomach, unique among Mammalia, which has led to the retention, 

 by most recent zoologists, of Kaup's genus Muscardinus, formed for 

 the reception of the common Dormouse. 



The absence of this complication proves that Iffyoxus lasiotis is 

 not so nearly allied to 31. avellanarius as Temmiuck supposed, 



' P. Z. S. 1838, p. 5. 



" Cf. Alston, P.Z. 8. 1875, p. 317. 



