MUS. 



47 



Above dusty reddish or rufous brown, below rather paler. Fur short, 

 erisp, quite spineless, slate-coloured for three-fourths the length at 

 base and tipped yellowish or orange with a few black-tipped hairs inter- 

 mixed in less bright-coloured specimens. Tail longer than head and 

 body or equal, more or less pale beneath. Mammae 10, three pectoral and 

 two inguinal pairs. 



Length.— Read and body 2-6" to 3"; tail 3-20" to 3-54'; hind foot 



o-es'-^o-es." 



The common house mouse of the whole of India. 



Mus bactrianus, Blyth, J. A. 8. B. xv., p. 140 ; Blavf. Eastern 

 Persia, p. 56. pi. y. fig. 2 ; Danfield and Alston, P. Z. S. 1880; Jerdon, 

 Mam. Ind. p. 205. Murray, Hdblc, Zool. &c.. Bind, p. 93. M. 

 gerbillinus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxii., p. 410. M. Theobaldi, Blyth, 

 J. A. S. B. 22, p. 583. 



Fur as in M.. urbanus, colour light isabelline or sandy fawn. The 

 bases of the hairs with a slaty tinge. Ears shorter than in M. urhanus, 

 covered inside and out with short hairs of a sandy colour, under parts 

 and feet white. Tail the length of the body, or a very little longer ; 

 brown above, white beneath, and clad with minute hairs. Mammee as 

 in M. urhanus. 



ieiiSfi/i.— Headandbody 2''to 3-4.'; tail 2-45" to 3-55'; hind foot 

 0-65' to 0-75*. 



Bah. — Siud, N. W. Provinces, Cashmere, and westwards to the 

 Euphrates; Muscat, Beloochistan, S. Persia and Afghanistan. 



Mus mettada, Gray, CharlaswoHh Mag. N. H. i., p. 686. Mus 

 lanugiuosus, Ell. Madras Journ. Lit. Soc. x., p. 212. Mus mettada, 

 Blavford, J. A. 8. B. xlvi., p. 290., pi. 1, skull, foot, &c., Jerdon, 

 Mammals of Ind. p. 213. — The Soit-fdeeed Field Rat. 



Fur long, soft or spineless. General colour above grey, below white. 

 Hairs above dark slaie colour for seven-eighths of their length, then 

 yellowish white, the extreme tips black or dark brown ; some have all 

 the distal quarter of the hair black ; these darker hairs as usual are more 

 numerous along the centre of the back. Belly hairs slate colour for. 

 theirbasal three-fourths, the tips white, hiding the slate colour. The line 

 of separation of the upper and lower colours as a rule is not well marked. 

 Mammas 8 — two pectoral and two inguinal pairs. Tail about the 

 length of the head and body. Hairs on the tail numerous, rather longer 

 than most species, but not forming a pencil at the tip. Colour brown 

 above, white below. The above is Mr. Thomas^ description of Southern 

 Indian and Ahmednuggur specimens. 



In Sind specimens the general colour of the face is rufescent sandy, 

 the basal half of the hairs being pale French grey, and the rest rufescent 

 with some longer, black, and black-tipped hairs intermixed. The lower 

 series of whiskers are white, and the upper dark brown. There is a 

 patch of pure white on the snout all round and including the lower lip. 

 The ears are round and -covered inside and out with whitish hairs, the 

 extreme outer margin intermixed with hairs which have dark brown 



