1881.] INDIAN SPECIES OF MUS. 537 



between the specimens with long and those with short nasal bones — 

 46, 49, 52, 54, 57, 59, 62, 64, 66, 69. After examining such a series 

 of figures as this, I think it will be generally admitted that the 

 length of the nasal bones is a character which should be reij-arded 

 with the very greatest caution before it is used to separate species 

 upon. 



^T. MuS FULVESCENS. 



*Musfulvescens, Gray, Cat. Hodgs. Coll. p. 18 (1846). 



*Mns candatior, Hodgs. Ann. &Mag. Nat. Hist. iii. p. 203 (1849) ; 

 Horsf. Cat. Mus. E.I. C. p. 144 (1851). 



Mus cmnamo)neus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxviii. p. 294 (1859), nee 

 Pictet, Not. Anim. Nouv. Mus. Gen. p. 64, pi. 19 (1844). 



Hab. Nepal and Sikhim ; Pegu (Berdmore). 



Fur soft and fine, generally spineless, but with sometimes a con- 

 siderable number of spines intermixed. Colour bright rufous above, 

 with slate-coloured bases to the hairs ; belly white, generally quite 

 pure, but sometimes either mixed with slate-colour or with a fulvous- 

 grey stripe down its centre. Tail long, brown above, and but 

 slightly paler beneath, sometimes with a tendency to the develop- 

 ment of a pencil of hairs at the tip. I have not been able to find 

 out the number of mammae present in this species. The skull, as 

 in Mus jerdoni, differs from that of 3/. alexandi'inus by the absence 

 of the projecting angle in the front of the exterior wall of the infra- 

 orbital foramen, by the more open lower part of the same foramen, 

 by its smaller teeth and shorter anterior palatine foramina. The 

 difference in the zygoma-root will be better understood by a com- 

 parison of the figures of the two forms (Plate L. fig. 3 a & b). 



With regard to the measurements, it unfortunately happens that 

 we have no spirit-specimens of this species ; but the following are 

 the nearest that can be made out from skins : — Head and body 4*5 

 to 5"5 in., tail 5 to 7 in., hind foot -95 to r05 in. 



Mus octomammis, Hodgs., was placed as a synonym of M. can- 

 datior by Gray ; but from Hodgson's drawing it would rather seem 

 to be M. jerdoni, which we know has only eight mammae. 



The exact position of this species is very doubtful, and can only 

 be settled by the examination of a good series of specimens pro- 

 perly preserved in spirit. Jerdon ' placed M.fulvescens as a synonym 

 of M. infralineatus, and quite separate from M. candatior ; the 

 types of this latter and of M. fulvescens, however, are undoubtedly 

 identical. 



8. Mus JERDONI. 



Leggada jerdoni, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxxii. p. 350 (1863). 

 V'Mus octomammis, Hodgs.," Gray, Cat. Hodgs. Coll. 2nd ed. 

 p. 10 (1863) (sine descr.). 



Hab. Sikhim ; Khasya Hills, Assam {Blanford); Java (r. HUgel), 

 Fur long, fine, usually with numerous spines intermixed. Above 

 ■ Mamui. Ind. p. 197 (1867). 



pROC. ZooL. See— 1881, No. XXXV. 35 



