1907.] FROM SAGHALIEX AXD HOKKAIDO. 409 



Size and proportions as in the smaller forms of European 

 minutus. Skull very light and delicate, peculiarly narrowed in 

 the facial region. In ordinary 7ninutt(s the skull narrows evenly 

 forward from the brain-case, but in gracillimus, while the brain- 

 case is of about the usual breadth, the narrowing is much more 

 abrupt in the interorbital region and the whole face in front of 

 this is pai'ticularly light and slender. P^ and molars rather 

 narrower than in true minutus. Pigmentation of teeth slight, 

 but the specimen is old, and they are all somewhat worn. 



Dimensions of the type, measured in the flesh : — 



Head and body 51 mm. ; tail 44 ; hind foot 11 ; ear (5. 



Skull — condylo -basal length 15"2 mm.; basal length 13"8; 

 greatest breadth 7*7 ; interorbital breadth at hinder end of ante- 

 orbital foramina 2*8 ; length of upper tooth-row 6'8 ; breadth 

 across molars 3 '4. 



Ilab. & Type as above. 



Of this tiny Shrew, the Eastern representative of our Pygmy 

 Shrew, Mr. Anderson only sent the skull and one hind foot, the 

 rest having been stolen by a rat. Fortunately the measurements 

 were presei'ved, and as these and the skull ai-e the chief basis for 

 systematic work on Shrews, the colours being comparatively 

 unimportant, I have thought myself justified in giving a name to 

 the animal on the very perceptible difference in the shape of the 

 skull. jSTo Far-Eastei'n forms of this gi'oup have been previously 

 recorded, except undei- the old names of S. mimitus or j'^ygmcmis. 



9. SCIUROPTERUS RUSSICUS * ATHENE, Subs^i. n. 



5 . 865. 17 miles IST.W. of Korsakoff, Saghalien, 1st August, 

 1906. B.M. No. 7.2.5.24. Type. 



Colour as in 8. momonga t ; skull as in tiaie russicus. 



General colour above drab-grey, the tij^s of the hairs clay- 

 colour ; under surface dull whitish, the sides slightly washed 

 with reddish brown. Upper surface of hands and feet smoky 

 grey, becoming black on the digits ; the hairs at the bases of the 

 claws clay-colour ; hairy pai't of soles greyish white ; lower side 

 of digits naked. Tail very much as in S. momonga, the upper 

 and under layers of hair black, the middle layer isabella or clay 

 colour, the hairs at the tip verging towards buffy. 



Skull with the long palatal foramina and large bullae of 

 S. russicus, each of these parts being markedly smaller in 

 S. mom,onga. 



* Pteromys russicus Tiedem. Zool. p 451, 1808. American zoologists have 

 rightly shown that the name vnJaiis Linn, belongs to the American species ; but 

 this is not because Linnieus's 3Ius volans is founded on Seba's PL xliv. fig. 3, 

 " exclusively American," as the aninial figured by Seba is clearly a Petmirista, in 

 spite of his statement that its locality was Virginia. The real basis of the Linuean 

 name is Ray's Sciurus amerieanus volans (Quadi'. p. 215, 1693), which is undoubtedly 

 the American species. 



f Or at least as in S. momonga amygdali Thos., the restricted momonga being 

 only represented by a bleached specimen. 



