1882.] ON A NEW SPECIES OF RAT FROM CHINA. 587 



9. Description of a new Species of Rat from China. By 

 Oldfield ThomaSj F.Z.S., British Museum. 



[Eeceived June 19, 1882.] 



(Plate XLIV.) 



The specimens upon which the following description is founded 

 were sent to the Paris Museum by the Abbe Armand David ; and I 

 have been asked by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards to describe them, as 

 they represent a most interesting and remarkable new species. 



Four specimens were obtained ; and of these Prof. Milne-Edwards 

 has been good enough to let the British Museum have one, the 

 specimen b measured below ; and I have also myself examined and 

 determined the others in the Paris Museum. I propose to call the 

 species 



Mus EDWARDSi, sp. n. (Plate XLIV.) 



Fur rather short, fine and soft, though mixed with numerous 

 slender spines. General colour above yellowish grey, the yellow 

 more strongly marked on the sides. Hairs slate-coloured with pale 

 yellow tips ; spines white with black tips ; chin, chest, aud belly pure 

 white, the line of separation well defined. Outer side of legs slaty 

 grey. Fore feet white ; hind feet with the upperside of the tarsus 

 grey and the toes white. Tail about the length of the head and 

 body (stuffed, in spirit-specimens probably markedly longer), sharply 

 bicolor dark grey and white for half its length ; and then the dark 

 upper colour gradually disappears, and the terminal three inches are 

 wholly white. Ears large and rounded, uniformly grey. Hind 

 foot-pads very large ; fifth hind toe, without claw, reaching to just 

 beyond the base of the fourth. 



Skull with the elongated muzzle, open infraorbital foramen, and but 

 slightly developed perpendicular plate found in M. jerdoni, Blyth, 

 and in the other members of the group of Rats to which the present 

 species belongs. 



Dimensions (from stuffed specimens) in EngUsh inches and 

 tenths : — 



a. b. c. 



Head and body (approximately)' ..12-6 11-8 11-2 



Tail 12-0 11-05 10-9 



Hind foot 203 2-03 1-96 



Ear-conch, length 1-0 -93 -86 



Skull, total length 2-41 2-30 2-18 



Other dimensions of skull of 6 :— greatest breadth I'O; length of 



^ Pere David's labels give the measurements in tlie flesli of specimens a and 

 c as follows:— a. Head and body 114, tail 12-2. c. Head aud body 110, tail 

 11-8. Ihe bodies have therefore been stretched in the stuffing, while the tails 

 have contracted, a process which always renders measurements from stuffed speci- 

 mens very deceptive. 



