1881.] INDIAN SPECIES OF MUS. 555 



Bengal specimens. Moreover Jerdon says': — "A specimen has been 

 sent to Mr. Blyth by Walter Elliot from Southern India, along with 

 a lot of 3Ius lepidus, from which he did not distinguish it." This, 

 of course, is a strong confirmation of my opinion as to the identity 

 of the two forms, since so acute an observer as Sir W. Elliot did 

 not separate them, and they were found together in the same loca- 

 lity. The proportions given by Blyth are moreover precisely the 

 same^. 



I have also but little doubt that Blyth's M . fulvidiventris is also 

 a synonym of this species. When describing it Blyth stated that it 

 was the " Mus cervicolor, Ilodgs." of Kelaart. Now we have seen 

 how closely allied L. buduga and i/. cervicolor are ; and some of 

 our Ceylon specimens are extraordinarily similar externally to that 

 species. Moreover there is nothing in Blyth's description to mili- 

 tate against this conclusion except the stated " rufescent or isabel- 

 line " colour of the belly. This tinge, however, may easily have 

 been the result of the defective preservation of the type, a frequent 

 cause of a more or less yellow instead of white coloration of fur. 

 M. albidiventris, Blyth, described at the same time as M. fulvidi- 

 ventris, was later considered by the describer to be a specimen of 

 M. cervicolor ; but I think it very possible that it may be this 

 species, judging from its locahty (Calcutta). 



The drawing given of the teeth (Plate LI. fig. 10) has been taken 

 from the actual specimen upon which Gray founded the genus 

 Leggada. I have also (fig. 11) had a side view of the first molar 

 of the same specimen taken, showing the extra cusp (a) in profile, and, 

 for the sake of comparison, the side view of the same tooth of 

 another equally spiny specimen, which has scarcely a trace of the 

 extra cusp. These two figures show that there is no correspondence 

 between the presence of spines in the fur and extra dental cusps. 

 In fact, in the British-Museum series there are specimens (I) with 

 both spines and extra cusps, (2) with spines and no extra cusps, 

 (3) no spines, but distinct extra cusps, and (4) neither spines in 

 the fur nor extra cusps on the molars. 



This series seems to me quite to preclude the possibility of sepa- 

 rating these variable Mice into two or more distinct species. 



Blyth described two other species as belonging to Leggada, 

 namely L. spimdosa ^ and L.jerdoni. The latter is a good species 

 of true Mus, and has been treated of already (p. .537). The former, 

 however, I am quite unable to identify, though I believe it will turn 

 out also to be a good species, unless L. platythrix should be found 

 to occur in the Punjab, in which case it might be only a synonym 

 of that species. 



1 Mamm. Ind. p. 209. 



2 Dr. Anderson has sent two specimens of the true M. terricolor from the 

 neighbourhood of Calcutta, expressing at the same time his opinion that that 

 species is distinct from L. huduga. These sjjccimeiis, however, onl}' confirm my 

 opinion as to their identity, agreeing exactly in colour, and being nearly as 

 spin)' as tlie tvpical sjoecimens of L. huduga. 



3 J. A. S. E. xxiii. p. 734 (1854). 



36* 



