1881.] INDIAN SPECIES OF MUS. 551 



Mus mettada, Blanford, J. A. S. B. xlvi. (2) p. 290, pi. i. (skull, 

 foot, &c.) (1877). 



" Metdd " of Tank-diggers. 



Hab. Madras Presidency. 



Fur long, soft, and spineless. General colour above grey, below 

 white. Hairs above dark slate-colour for seven eighths of their 

 length, then yellowish white, the extreme tips black or dark brown; 

 some have all the distal quarter of the hair black ; these darker 

 hairs, as usual, arc more numerous along the centre of the back. 

 Belly-hairs slate-colour for their basal three fourths ; the tips white, 

 hiding the slate. The line of separation between the upper and 

 lower colours, as a rule, is not well marked. 



Mammae 8, two pectoral and two inguinal pairs. Tail about 

 the length of the head and body, varying, in our specimens, from a 

 5 of an inch longer to | an inch shorter. Hairs on the tail nume- 

 rous, rather longer than in most other species, but not forming a 

 pencil at the tip ; colour brown above and white below. Ears 

 large, rounded, clothed inside and out with short shining hairs. 

 Feet white or pale brown. Csecum wide and rather short, measur- 

 ing just an inch in the only specimen (an adult male) in which it 

 has been preserved. The skull has been so well figured and de- 

 scribed by Mr. Blanford (1. c.) that there is no need for me to enter 

 into any details concerning it. 



Dimensions. 



Ahmednagar. Madras. 



Head and body 4'5 4*56 



Tail 4-2 4-70 



Hind foot 1-0 I'Oo 



Forearm and hand .. 1*25 1"30 



Ear-conch, length .... '60 "60 



Nose to ear 1*15 1*15 



There are, as usual, five pads on the fore feet ; but on the hind 

 feet a most remarkable difference is observable. All other species 

 of the genus that I have ever seen, have six well-defined pads, the 

 last always strongly marked, linear in the Rats and circular in the 

 Mice ; but in this species the sixth pad is always, and the fifth 

 frequently, suppressed. Of eight spirit-specimens that I have 

 examined, three have only four, with the position of the fifth very 

 faintly indicated in one of them ; the other five (the specimens from 

 Ahmednagar referred to in Mr. Blanford's paper) have five well- 

 defined circular pads. In one of these last there is an extremely 

 faint indication of the normal sixth pad ; but so faint is it that a 

 lens is needed to make out its limits at all. 



This suppression of the hinder foot-pads is, judging from ana- 

 logy, most probably owing to the Metad's habitually moving and 

 sitting, more or less, like a Jerboa, because we find that, in all 

 genera doing this, the foot-pads are either suppressed behind or 



