THE HEBRIDEAN FIELD MOUSE 531 



THE HEBRIDEAN FIELD MOUSE. 

 A PO DEM us HEBRIDENSIS, de Winton. 



1895. Mus HEBRIDENSIS, W. E. de Winton, Zoologist, October 1895, 369-371 ; 



described from Uig, Island of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, type specimen. No. 



95.10.25.1 of British Museum collection; {Apodemus) Miller, Catalogue, 



1912, 824. 

 1895. Mus SYLVATICUS HEBRIDENSIS, W. E. de Winton, Zoologist, November 



1895, 426 (designates type specimen) ; Barrett- Hamilton, Proc. Zool. Soc, 



London, 1900, 403 ; Johnston, Millais, Trouessart. 

 191 3. Apodemus sylvaticus SYLVATIcus, G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton and M. A. C. 



Hinton, Proc. Zool. Soc, London, 1913, 835 (in part). 



History: — De Winton seems to have been the first to record the 

 presence of field mice in the Outer Hebrides, where he trapped a 

 number of specimens in Lewis in the summer of 1894 {Ann. Scott. Nat. 

 Hist., 1895, S3). In the following October (Joe. cit. supra) he published 

 a description of his Mus hebridensis, based on these specimens and 

 others taken by Pinney in Barra. Later in the year Steele Elliott 

 claimed priority for the discovery, but it appears that his remarks 

 refer to the St Kilda Field Mouse, a different form, as, indeed, was 

 suggested by de Winton. In the first paper on the mammals from the 

 Inner Hebrides (see footnote to p. 422 above) we referred the field 

 mice of Great Cumbrae, Arran, Gigha, Islay, Jura, Mull, and Tiree to 

 A. sylvaticus. As the result of a detailed investigation of the cranial 

 characters the field mice of the islands named, together with those of 

 Rum and Eigg, have now to be regarded as local races or sub-species 

 of hebridensis. Four of these forms have received names and are 

 described below ; it is highly probable that with further material several 

 of the other insular races will have to be given sub-specific rank. 



Description : — Size usually larger than in typical sylvaticus, and of 

 stouter build ; the feet longer ; the tail and ears relatively shorter. 

 The coloration varies in the different sub-species ; sometimes the backs 

 are dark, as in A. h. hebridensis, maclean, z.r^di fiolagan, sometimes rufous, 

 with few black hairs, as in cumbrcE ; the underparts sometimes have a 

 large pectoral spot, and are more or less generally suffused with buff or 

 yellow, as in h. hebridensis ; or the pectoral spot may be quite small or 

 absent, and the whole ventral surface nearly clear silver, as in maclean ; 

 the line of demarcation may be irregular or straight, clearly or faintly 

 defined, the degree to which it is evident being dependent upon the 

 colour of the flanks as well as upon that of the ventral surface. 



The cheek-teeth agree in form with those of sylvaticus. The skull 

 is usually (but not in cumbrce) larger than in sylvaticus ; in hamiltoni it 

 approaches that oi flavicollis in size. In general appearance it is like 



