1887.] COLLECTION FROM CHRISTMAS ISLAND. 513 



the female, I should certainly not be justified in assigning the 

 Christmas-Island specimens to Pt. lombocensis. It should also be 

 noticed that the little hair that has appeared on the crown and 

 between the shoulders of specimen c, a new-born male, is wholly 

 black ; its neck is unfortunately still entirely naked. 



Mus MACLEARi, sp. n. (Plate XLII.) 



a. Adult female. 



Fur very long, thick, and coarse, but not or very slightly spinous, 

 thickly intermixed on the back with enormously long piles from 2 

 to 2k inches in length. General colour grizzled rufous-brown, bell}"^ 

 but little hghter pale rufous. Shorter hairs everywhere pale slaty 

 grey at base, shining red at tip ; longer piles uniformly black ; the 

 general tint of the dorsal surface not unlike that of Arvicola amphi- 

 iius, except that the median line is a good deal darker owing to the 

 great number of the longer black piles there present. Whiskers very 

 long, many of them more than 3 inches in length, mostly black. Ears 

 naked, black, broad, short and rounded, their breadth about equal to 

 their length ; laid forward they fall short of the eye by about a quarter 

 of an inch. Limbs coloured externally like back, internally dull grey ; 

 upperside of hands and feet uniform dark brown ; sole-pads six, 

 very broad, flat and rounded, evidently adapted for climbing ; pad 

 at the base of the fifth toe with a secondary pad at its postero external 

 angle. Claws, both anterior and posterior, short, stout, curved, and 

 sharply pointed, brown horn-colour, that of the hallux markedly 

 shorter than the rest ; pollex with a broad nail as usual ; fifth hind 

 toe without claw reaching just to the end of the first phalanx of the 

 fourth. 



Tail very long, its posterior half black all round, its distal half white 

 or yellow, thinly and finely haired with short grey hairs, not hiding 

 the scales ; the scales large, the rings averaging just 10 to the centi- 

 metre. 



Palate-ridges 3-5. Mammae 4, one axillary and one inguinal 

 pair. 



Skull large and strong. Nasals extending to about a millimetre 

 past the level of the anterior edge of the orbit. Supraorbital edges 

 beaded, but the beading not continued so far forward as in 31. ever- 

 etti. Interparietal large. Front edge of the anterior zygoma-root 

 very prominent, projecting forwards. Palatal foramina very long, 

 their posterior end about one millimetre in front of the level of m^ 

 Bullae small and flattened. 



Incisors thick and strong, much bevelled externally, their faces 

 dull orange-yellow above and yellow below, but apparently the 

 colour has been more or less aflected by spirit. Molars of medium 

 size. 



Measurements of the type, an adult female in spirit : — Head and 

 body 222 millim.; tail 248; hind foot 48-5: ear 13; head 64; 

 forearm and hand 66 ; last hind foot-pad lO'o ; heel to front of 

 last foot-pad 20. 



Skull : — Basal length 47'5 ; greatest breadth 26'2 ; nasals, length 



