548 MURID^— APODEMUS 



ventral surface usually of a pure white colour ; its pectoral spot is often 

 not sufficiently developed to form a complete collar. The other is the 

 British A.f. wintoni, described below. CoUett says that in the form 

 living in southern Norway the reddish-yellow pectoral belt is seldom 

 wanting, and that it is often prolonged in a short point down towards 

 the belly; this race would thus appear to make a closer approach 

 towards the British form than do the specimens from Central 

 Europe. 



The British sub-species is : — 



DE WINTON'S FIELD MOUSE. 



APODEMUS FLA VICOLLIS WINTONI (Barrett-Hamilton). 



1900. Mus SYLVATICUS WINTONI, G. E. H. Barrett- Hamilton, Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 London, 1900, 406 ; described from Graftonbury, Herefordshire ; type specimen, 

 a male, No. 0.3.12.1 of British Museum collection; Trouessart ; Johnston; 

 Millais. 



1894. Mus FLAVICOLLIS, de Winton, Zoologist, 441, December ; Lydekker. 



1912. APODEMUS FLAVICOLLIS WINTONI, Miller, Catalogue, 831. 



History: — Pennant {Quad., ii., 184, ed. 3, 1793)^ states that the 

 " Field Rat " has the " breast of an ochre colour ; belly white ; length, 

 from the tip of the nose to the tail, 4I inches ; tail, 4 inches " ; this 

 description appears to have been based upon a specimen of the present 

 form, and not upon sylvaticus. Similarly, the dimensions given by 

 Shaw, Desmarest, and Bell (ed. 2, 296) appear to be derived from 

 wintoni, and most of the older writers seem to have regarded this 

 mouse as a full-grown or finely developed sylvaticus. Jenyns (Man. 

 Brit. Vert., 31, 1835), however, called specific attention to "a larger 

 variety, measuring 4J inches in length, exclusively of the tail, which is 

 4 inches," sometimes met with in woods. The history of modern know- 

 ledge of this form, dating from de Winton's paper of 1894, has been 

 dealt with above under the species. 



Distribution : — This mouse is only known from South Britain, in 

 which it appears to have a wide but sporadic distribution. Originally 

 described from Herefordshire and Northamptonshire, it is now known 

 to occur at various localities in Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Middlesex, Essex 

 (Dr H. Laver and G. Dalgleish, in lit.), Suffolk (Southwell, Zoologist, 



1903, 150), Northumberland, Worcestershire {? ocook, Journ. cit., 1901, 

 423), Cornwall, Shropshire, near Oswestry (Dumville Lees in Forrest), 

 Brecon (at Llyswen, Phillips), and Denbigh (Llanrwst, Forrest, North 



Wales, 50). 



Where present this mouse is usually abundant, its colonies being, if 



' Also in Brit. Zool., ed. i (folio), 1766, 49. 



