1900.] MUS SYLVATICUS AND ITS ALLIES. 415 



comparison with a series of specimens from Western Europe. 

 It is very unfortunate that, whereas Mr. Blanford's original 

 description was taken from the Kohriid specimens, he afterwards 

 obtained his cranial characters from a specimen from Wakhan, 

 which may have belonged to quite a different subspecies. At all 

 events the cranial characters as laid down by him, and in par- 

 ticular that of the si/e of the last upper molar, will not apply to 

 his original specimens (skull no. 74.11.21.22, J , Persia). 



Distribution. So far as our present information goes, and the name 

 being used in the wider sense indicated above, it would appear that 

 Mus s. arianus has a wide distribution. Mr. Blanford remarks ' 

 that " a species apparently identical with the Persian Mouse was 

 collected by the late Dr. Stoliczka 2 in Wakhan, a province on the 

 Upper Oxus belonging to Afghanistan, and at Kashgar, in Eastern 

 Turkestan ; and the same form has since been found by Major 

 Biddulph and Dr. Scully at Gilgit, in the Upper Indus Valley." 

 Blyth a recorded it from Cherra Punji, India; while Herr Biichner ' 

 identified with this Mouse the specimens brought by Przewalski 

 from the rivers Zauma, Ssairam-mor, and Chapzagaigol, in Central 

 Tian-schan, and from the southern slopes of the mountains of the 

 latter name, to a height of 7500 feet. 



It is found as a " steppe-inhabitant in the Ural, as well as on 

 the Kirgies Steppes ; but in Turkestan, where M. musculus is 

 absent, M. wagneri is the house-mouse. It is numerous in the 

 Chimkentand Tashkent houses, where it does not differ at all from 

 the Kirgies-Steppe specimens." 5 



De Filippi G identified the Persian House-mouse as Mus sylvaticus, 

 and states that the same species was brought from Shiraz by 

 Marquis Doria. Mr. Blanford, however, declares that a specimen 

 which he obtained from Shiraz is certainly M. bactrianus. Mr. 

 Blanford had seen no specimens from Northern Persia, and thought 

 that " although the house-mouse there may be M. sylvaticus, it is 

 quite as probable that it is 31. bactrianus." 



" Even if, however, M. bactrianus prove to be found in houses 

 throughout Persia, M. sylvaticus must also be included in the fauna, 

 as it was found by Menetries common on the parts of the Talish 

 Mountains not covered by trees, and it is said by Eichwald to 

 be abundant in Georgia." "Eichwald includes if. musculus L., 



from Wakhan the breadth exceeds that of the molar ; the third upper molar 

 of M. sylvaticus is about one-fourth the size of the second, whereas in the 

 Wakhan and Gilgit skulls the proportion is one half. It should be noted 

 that Mr. BLmford had only one skull of European M. sylvaticus at his disposal, 

 and only the figures of the types from which he had described M. erythronotus, 

 the specimens themselves having been mislaid. See also pages 54 & 55 of 

 Mr. Blanford's ' Mammals of the Yarkand Expedition' (1879). 



1 J. A. S. B. vol. xlviii. pt. ii. (1879). 



2 " At Panja in Wakhan"— Blanford, J. A. S. B. xliv. p. 108 (1875). 



3 J. A. S. B. xxiv. p. 721, & xxxii. p. 348. 



4 Op. cit. pp. 90-91. 



6 Blanford, Mamm. Yarkand, p. 54. 

 6 Op. cit. p. 344. 



