446 MR. O. THOMAS ON SMALL [NoV. 20, 



13. Cricetus (Vesperimus) taylori, Thos. Aun. Mag. N. H. 

 (5) xix. p. 66 (1887). 



a. Skin and skull, S , 24/1 1/86. Type. 



b. Skin and skull, $ , 2/87. 

 c-n. In al., S ? . 



Forearm 

 and hand. 



15-.5 

 15-8 

 170 

 16-7 



Skull (5): — Basal length 15-7 millim., greatest breadth 10-3; 

 nasals, length 7*1; interoibital breadth 3'5; interparietal, length 

 2-1, breadth 4-8 ; palate, length 9'2, breath outside m.^ 4-0, inside 

 ra.^ 2"3 ; anterior palatine foramen, length 3'7 ; upper molar series, 

 length 3-1. 



Since my original description of this species was published, Mr. 

 Taylor has sent home many well-preserved specimens of it in spirit, 

 and I am therefore able to draw up a more complete description of 

 this diminutiTe Vesper-Mouse. 



Size very small ; general appearance very like that of Mus mus- 

 cuius. Whole of upper surface grizzled brownish grey, exactly of 

 the tone of the common house-mouse. Ears small, evenly rounded, 

 about as broad as long ; laid forward (in spirit-specimens) they 

 reach to the posterior canthus of the eye ; their anterior margin 

 without any marked central projection ; tlieir surface very thinly 

 clothed with minute greyish hairs. Chin white; throat, chest, and 

 sides of belly greyish white, the hairs slaty grey basally, white ter- 

 minally ; centre of belly, in all the fourteen specimens examined, 

 with a narrow pure white patch running from the sternum to the 

 anus. Arms and legs like body ; hands and feet white or greyish, 

 thinly haired ; palms and soles naked, the former with five, the 

 latter with six small but prominent pads ; fifth hind toe, without 

 claw, reaching to the middle of the first phalanx of the fourth. Tail 

 short, barely as long as the body without the head, thinly haired, 

 brown above and white below ; its scales very fine, the rings averaging 

 from 25 to 30 to tlie centimetre. Mammse 0—2 = 4. 



Skull in its general shape and proportions curiously similar to that 

 of a miniature Mus muscuius, especially as its interorbital region has 

 precisely the smooth upper surface and evenly divergent, square, 

 but unbeaded, supraorbital edges so characteristic of that species. 

 Interparietal very small. Outer wall of infraorbital foramen without 

 an anterior projecting plate. Anterior palatine foramen extending 

 nearly to the level of the middle of m.^ 



Teeth as usual in the subgenus Vesperimus. 



No detailed comparison is needed of this little mouse with its 

 nearest allies, as it is at once distinguished from all by its diminutive 

 size, its Mus musculus-\We colour and shape of skull, and its small 

 number of mammae. 



