1882. ] ON A NEW SPECIES OF RAT FROM CHINA. 587 
9. Description of a new Species of Rat from China. By 
OuprizLtp Tuomas, F.Z.S., British Museum. 
[Received June 19, 1882.] 
(Plate XLIV.) 
The specimens upon which the following description is founded 
were sent to the Paris Museum by the Abbé Armand David; and I 
have been asked by Prof. A. Milne-Edwards to describe them, as 
they represent a most interesting and remarkable new species. 
Four specimens were obtained ; and of these Prof. Milne-Edwards 
has been good enough to let the British Museum have one, the 
specimen 4 measured below ; and I have also myself examined and 
determined the others in the Paris Museum. I propose to call the 
species 
Mus epwarpst, sp.n. (Plate XLIV.) 
Fur rather short, fine and soft, though mixed with numerous 
slender spines. General colour above yellowish grey, the yellow 
more strongly marked on the sides. Hairs slate-coloured with pale 
yellow tips ; spines white with black tips; chin, chest, and belly pure 
white, the line of separation well defined. Outer side of legs slaty 
grey. Fore feet white; hind feet with the upperside of the tarsus 
grey and the toes white. Tail about the length of the head and 
body (stuffed, in spirit-specimens probably markedly longer), sharply 
bicolor dark grey and white for half its length; and then the dark 
upper colour gradually disappears, and the terminal three inches are 
wholly white. Ears large and rounded, uniformly grey. Hind 
foot-pads very large; fifth hind toe, without claw, reaching to just 
beyond the base of the fourth. 
Skull with the elongated muzzle, open infraorbital foramen, and but 
slightly developed perpendicular plate found in M. jerdoni, Blyth, 
and in the other members of the group of Rats to which the present 
species belongs. 
Dimensions (from stuffed specimens) in English inches and 
tenths :— 
a. d. e, 
Head and body (approximately)' .. 12°6 11°8 11°2 
Dial S.€ bd\st dah Wao tins wee 12-0 11°05 =10°9 
Elintk foot: 25.200 ipa cat a ae 2°03 2°03 1°96 
Har-conch, length .i04 io. e Wa i4 1:0 "93 86 
Skull, total length .... ..0.....5. 2°41 2°30 2°18 
Other dimensions of skull of 6 :—greatest breadth 1:0; length of 
1 Pére David’s labels give the measurements in the flesh of specimens a and 
cas follows :—a. Head and body 11-4, tail 12:2. c. Head and body 11°0, tail 
11:8. ‘The bodies have therefore been stretched in the stuffing, while the tails 
have contracted, a process which always renders measurements from stuffed speci- 
mens very deceptive. 
