30 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL MIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII. 



Mus NITIDULUS, Blyth. 

 Berdmore's Mmise. 



This species has always been a puzzle, and owing to the loss of 

 the type from the Calcutta Museum, its proper identification con- 

 tinues to be a difiiculty. The two mice from Sikhim that I assigned 

 to it in 1881 are certainly something different, but owing to the 

 bad condition of one and the immaturity of the other I cannot at 

 present make any satisfactory determination of them. 



In the Burmese collection Mr. Shortridge obtained two species 

 of nitidulus like mice, a larger and a smaller, and on comparing 

 Blyth's description^ with these two species, I have come to the 

 conclusion that it is the smaller one, the Miis, wdiich, pending the 

 arrival of topotypes, should be provisionally assigned to 3£. niticlulus, 

 and that the Leggadilla is new. Beyond saying that it has 12 

 mamm^ or more, I will not now describe the form I assign to 

 nitidulus, as this naming may hereafter be again upset, but it 

 certainly agrees very closely with Blyth's description, such as that is. 



The larger species I propose to term — 



Leggadilla shoeteidgei, sp. n. 



Shortridge^ s Leggada. 



Size comparatively large, larger than in any of the species mention- 

 ed by Wroughton and Byley. Fur thickly mixed with spines, the 

 spines on the back about 8-9 mm. in length. General colour drab- 

 grey, the bases of the fur pale grey or whitish grey, the ends of the 

 hairs pale drab, of the spines black. 



Undersarface drabby whitish, the hairs slaty at base; line of 

 demarcation on sides not very sharply defined. Ears scarcely darker 

 than the general colour. Hands and feet white. Tail shorter than 

 head and body ; brown above, whitish below, not sharply defined ; 

 caudal rings about 16 to the centimeter. Mammae 3-2=10. 



Skull long and slender, with long, narrow muzzle. The raised 

 superorbital bead characteristic of Leggadilla as opposed to Mus well 

 defined, starting close behind the back of the nasals, and continued 

 backwards across the parietals. Palatal foramina to the level of the 

 front of the inner root of m\ 



Teeth those of a typical Leggadilla, conspicuously larger than in 

 the species I refer to Mus nitidulus. 



Bimensions of the type (measured in flesh) : — Head and body 

 122mm. (range 110-125); tail 101 (85-103); hindfoot 21-5 

 (20-22); ear 17-5 (17-19). 



Shull. — Greatest length 30 ; condylo-incisive lengiih 29-2; zygoma- 

 tic breadth 1 5 ; nasals 13; interorbital breadth 4-3; interparietal 

 3-8x10; palatilar length 14*3 ; palatal foramina 7*2 ; upper molar 

 series 4-6. 

 ~ 1 J. A S. B. XVIII, p. 29 i, 1859. ~~ 



