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



the general colour is bright rufous, the hairs being dark slate-colour 

 for four fifths of their length, and the tips being orange-red ; on 

 the centre of the back there are numerous wholly black hairs mixed 

 with the others ; these thin out towards the sides, so that there the 

 rufous colour is much clearer. Spines white, with black tips. 

 Belly pure white, the line of separation well defined. Feet white 

 as a rule, though sometimes the dark colour of the upper side runs 

 down as far as the base of the digits. Tail very long, generally two 

 and sometimes three inches longer than the head and body, brown 

 above and white beneath from root to tip. Mammae eight, two 

 pectoral and two inguinal pairs. Hind foot-pads (Plate LI. fig. 1) 

 six, large, nearly circular except the last, the terminal pad of the 

 hallux very large. Ears rather large, oval ; laid forward they reach 

 quite to the eye. 



The skull is somewhat hke that of M. fulvescens, differing from 

 that of M. alexandrinus by its smaller teeth, the upper series 

 measuring in this species 5'8millim., and in an equal-sized specimen 

 of M. alexandrinus, 7'0 millim. The auditory bullae are more 

 flattened, only standing about 1-5 millim. above the base of the 

 skull ; A'vhile in M. alexandrinus, they are 3 millim. high, and are 

 much more inflated. There is the same form of the anterior 

 zygoma-root already mentioned as obtaining in M. fulvescens ; and, 

 lastly, the emargination between the condyle and the posterior angle 

 of the lower jaw seems to be shallower than usual. 



Ileasurements. 



Darjiling. 

 , ^ ^ 



a. cf. b. 2. c. c?. 



Head and body 5-3 (c) 5-0 5-4 



Tail 7-1 6-8 8-5 



Hind foot 1-15 M5 M5 



Forearm r45 1*4.5 1-45 



Ear-conch, length '7Q '68 '72 



Muzzle to ear 1-38 .. 1-30 



It will be noticed that the hind foot and the forearm are exactly 

 the same in all. Hpecimen c is said to have come from Malabar ; 

 but I think there can be no doubt that this is a mistake. This 

 specimen has the longest tail in proportion to its size of any Indian 

 species of the whole genus, its length being more than six and a 

 half times the distance between the muzzle and the ear, while our 

 longest-tailed specimen of Vandeleuria oleracea has it only six and 

 a quarter times. 



The palate-ridges (Plate LI. fig. 2) of this species show a slight 

 difference from those of 31. alexandrinus, there being an incomplete 

 ridge between those answering to the fourth and fifth divided ridges 

 of M. alexandrinus, thus making six instead of five divided ridges. 

 This difference, though slight in itself, appears to be constant, as 

 five spirit-specimens all show the extra ridge, while I have seen it 



