[ 453 ] 



XIII. On the Osteology and Dentition o/Hylomys. By John Andbbson, M.I)., Curator 

 of the Indian Museum, and Professor of Comparative Anatomy in the Medical 

 College, Calcutta. 



Read June 4th, 1872. 



[Plate LXIV.] 



XHIS most interesting form, originally described by S. Miiller and Schlegel' from two 

 individuals, one from the island of Sumatra and the other from Java, was afterwards 

 discovered by Blyth^ in a collection of Mammals forwarded to him by Major Berdmore, 

 from Shuay Gyeen, in the valley of the Sitang, in the Tenasserim Provinces. Blyth 

 writes of the specimens (which were two in number, an adult male and female) that 

 " they so nearly resembled the H. suillus of the Archipelago, figured and described by 

 Dr. S. MiiUer, that I should have considered them identical were it not for the greater 

 development of the tail." Having, however, removed the skull of one of Blyth's spe- 

 cimens, and finding it agree with the figure of the skull of H. suillus, S. Miiller and 

 Schlegel, I am inclined to regard them as of one species, although at the same time I 

 propose to retain Blyth's term until the question can be determined by the comparison 

 of Peguan with Sumatran specimens. 



Dr. Gray', in describing the genus Ptilocercus, which seems to be closely allied to 

 Tupaia, incidentally mentions Eylomys, and states that the geographical range of the 

 Tupaiinse appears to be confined to the Asiatic islands, and that Borneo may be regarded 

 as their more proper home, as possessing all the genera, viz. Tupaia, Hylomys, and Ptilo- 

 cercus ; but he does not mention his authority for extending the distribution of Hylomys 

 to this island. Now, however, it has been ascertained that Tupaia and Hylomys occur 

 in Java, Sumatra, and Pegu, and that they are associated in these two islands and in the 

 Malayan peninsula with Gymnura. The next notice of Hylomys that I am aware of is 

 by Wagner^ who, however, added nothing to what had been already recorded about the 

 characters of the genus. Mivai-t, in 1867, in his most valuable review of the osteology 

 and dentition of the Insectivora% reproduced all that was known regarding these points 



' Verhand. over. d. Nat. Gesch. d. Nederl. Mamm. 1843, pp. 153-158, pi. xxvi. fig. 1, pi. xsv. figs. 4-7, 

 BkuU. 



^ Joum. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xxviii. 1859, p. 294 ; ibid. p. 286. 



' Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1848, p. 23. 



' Schreber's Saugetb. Suppl. ii. 1841, p. 554; ibid. Suppl. v. p. 855, pp. 529, 530, tab. 36. 



= Journ. Anat. & Phys. vol. i. pp. 301, 302. 



VOL. VIII. — PART vni. April, 1S74:. 3 s 



