J8N?.] MK. O.THOMAS ON A N KW GENUS OF MURIDiE. 131 



laid forward (in spirit-specimens), they would no doubt reach to or 

 beyond the anterior canthus of the eye. Hairs of back nearly white at 

 their bases, then siate-coloured, their tips reddish, or, along the centre, 

 black. Whole of underside and inner sides of limbs pure sharply 

 defined white, the back of the lower leg, however, slaty grey. Hands 

 and feet white. Feet long and slender; fifth hitid toe (without 

 claw) barely reaching to the base of the fourth ; hallux reaching 

 about to tlie level of the middle of the fifth. Soles quite naked, 

 smooth, the pads small, rounded, prominent, only five in number, the 

 postero-external one of the complete Murine set of six absent. Tail 

 very long, slender, finely and distinctly scaled, the scales about 12 or 

 13 to the centimetre; its proximal hall' almost naked, with just a few 

 minute hairs between the scales ; these gradually increase in numbers, 

 the terminal half being sufficiently thickly clothed tor the scales to be 

 nearly or quite hidden ; colour of tail sharply bicolor from base to 

 ,tip, above slaty grey, below white, the hairs and scales both so 

 coloured. 



Skull (Plate V. figs. l-.5)very light, slender, and deheate, with a very 

 long narrow parallel-sided muzzle. Nasals not tapering backwards, 

 but as broad behind as in the middle, their posterior margin directly 

 transverse ; frontal process of premaxilla not reaching to the level 

 of the back of the nasals. Interorbital space broad, smooth, evenly 

 convex, its edges with a slight but distinct beading. Zygomata 

 but little expanded, very thin and weak, their two anterior roots, 

 upper and lower, about equal both in thickness and length ; the 

 zygomata, therefore, commencing at a much lower level than in 

 Mus, and the lower root entirely without the broad external pro- 

 jecting plate so characteristic of the typical Mures. Infraorbital 

 foramen large, open, and rounded, not at all narrowed below. 

 Palate narrow, its edges square and sharp-edged, continued behind 

 the level of the last molar for about two millimetres ; palatal fora- 

 mina short, ending some distance in front of m\ Lower jaw un- 

 usually low, light, and slender. 



Incisors orange above, yellow below, the upper ones narrow, flat 

 in front, not bevelled ; with two minute vertical grooves down the 

 face of each. Molars with their pattern as already described ; their 

 cusps very high, pointed, and sharply defined ; m' as long as ui" and 

 m^ together. 



Dimensions of the type, an adult specimen, stuflFed : — 



Head and body 125 millim. ; tail 172 (extreme tip imperfect); 

 hind foot 33-8; ear (dried) 17; heel to tip of hallux 23, of fifth 

 toe 25*5 ; to front of last foot-pad 17*8 ; to point between bases of 

 third and fourth toe 26"6. 



Skull: — basal length (c.) 29-0 ; greatest breadth 16-0; nasals, 

 length 14"0, greatest breadth 4*0; interorbital breadth 6*7; inter- 

 parietal, length (c.) 4"5, breadth 9'2 ; lower anterior zygoma-root, 

 diameter J-8; infra-orbital foramen, height 3*2, breadth (c.) 1'9; 

 distance from outer corner of one foramen to that of the other O'G ; 

 palate, length 18'5, breadth outside m' 8-1, inside m' 4*1 ; diastema, 

 length 9*9 ; palatal foramina, length 5'2 ; length of whole upper 



