526 MR. o. THOMAS ON THE [May 3, 



the shortness of its feet would cause it to be placed with var. hard- 

 wickei. Of several skins from the same place, moreover, some have 

 _ all the fur-characters of one and some of the other variety. Mr. 

 Blanford, in his ' Mammalia of Yarkand ' ', has said that he doubts 

 whether the differences between the two forms are constant ; and 

 Dr. Anderson seems to have been quite unable to find any important 

 differences between the skulls, though he keeps the two species dis- 

 tinct". I think therefore that it will be better to regard iV. hard- 

 wichei and N. huttoni as geographical races of one species, the 

 former occupying the low countries of Sind and North-west India, 

 and the latter the comparatively higher regions of Persia and 

 Afghanistan, It is true that the types of the two varieties look 

 extremely different; but that oi M. {N.) hardiinckei has been enor- 

 mously overstretched, so that it looks quite double the size of that 

 of M. (N.) huttoni, its skull and feet, however, showing that the 

 difference in size is almost wholly artificial. 



The type of i\^. griffithii, Horsf,, is undoubtedly a specimen of 

 this species, and seems to be, on the whole, rather more like var. 

 hardwicJcei ; but it is such a bad skin that I cannot determine this 

 point with certainty. Mus pyctoris, Hodgs., which Dr. Anderson 

 placed here, is not a Nesolia at all, but a true Mus, as shown by the 

 type, and is a synonym of M. alexandrinus, var. nitidus ^. 



2. Mus (Nesokia) bengalensis. 



a. Northern race {N. bengalensis). 



Arvicola bengalensis, Gray & Hardw. 111. Ind. Zool. ii. pi. 21 

 (1833-34). 



* 3Ius daccanensis, Tytler, Ann. & Mag. N. H. xiv. p. 173 (18.54). 

 M, * tarayensis et * plurimammis, Hodgs., Horsf. Ann. & Mag. 



N. H. xvi. p. 112 (1855). 



* M. morungensis, Hodgs., Horsf. /. c. (juv.) (1855). 



Nesokia indica, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxxii. p. 328 (1863); Jcrd. 

 Mamm. Ind. p. 187 (1867) (nee M. i?idicus, Bechst.). 



M. (N.) blythianus, Anders. J. A. S. B. xlvii. p. 22", pi. xiii. 

 figs, a to rf(l878). 



M. {N.) larclayanus, Anders, t. c. p. 229, pi. xiii. figs, i to I 

 (1878); Blanford, Zool. Yark. Exp., Mamm. p. 46, pi. x. a. fig. 1 

 (skull) (1879). 



Hah. North and Central India. ? Malacca and Andaman 

 Islands. 



b. Southern race {N. kok). 



*Mus kok, Gray, Charlesw. Mag. N. H. i. p. 585 (1837). 



* M. (Neotoma) providens, Ell. Madr. Journ. x. p. 209 (1839). 



* M. dubius, Kel. J. A. S. Ceylon, 1851 (nee Hodgs.) (1851). 



^ Mamm. Yark. Exp. p. 47, 1879. 



^ Dr. Anderson now agrees with me as to the propriety of uniting these two 

 forms. 

 3 See below, p. 533. 



