80 



attains the largest size, especially as to the hind foot, which organ 

 measures according to Oldfleld Thomas 66 Millimeters: it therefore 

 (cf. the measurement given above 86 Mm.) is much smaller than M. 

 armandvillei , moreover M. imperator bears another mode of colouring 

 and has not a partly yellow tail. 



I think it better to take Mus giganteus Hardwicke , Nesokia gigantea 

 of the modern authors , not in consideration , for meanwhile Hardwicke 

 described and figured its tail as „having the last inch naked and dif- 

 fering in colour from the rest" the modern authors describe its tail 

 as „black"; so that either Hardwicke's animal had a mutilated (excoriated) 

 tail, or the lighter coloured tip of the tail is not constant in that spe- 

 cies, or M. giganteus of the modern authors is another species as 

 Hardwicke's. For the rest it has nothing in common with our Flore- 

 sian Rat. 



The pelage of Mus armandvillei, as in the other species, consists of 

 three kinds of hairs, short woolly mouse-coloured underfur with tips of 

 a reddish brown colour, longer black bristles and white coloured black 

 tipped flat flexible spines, intermediate in length between the two other 

 kinds of hairs. The bristles, being the longest, project therefore beyond 

 the other hairs. The fur is rather short, the longest bristle on the 

 back does not surpass 35 Mm. Towards the underparts of the body 

 and inside of the extremities the projecting bristles become white tipped , 

 so that these parts have a much lighter hue than the upper parts. 

 In macropus the mouth , throat , chest , belly , inside of legs and upper 

 surface of the feet are white. M. armandvillei has hands and feet co- 

 vered with short, slightly curved dark coloured stiff hairs, which turn 

 white towards the extremities of the fingers; the named hairs are 

 placed in very regular parallel roios. 



The skin of the ears is black, externally and internally clad with 

 a few very short, scattered, dark coloured hairs. Vibrissae very nume- 

 rous, black and rather elongate, the longest measuring about 10 cen- 

 timeters. 



The tail covered with rather large oblong square scales, alternately 

 (see plate V, figs. 6 and 7) imbricated at its root, more and more 

 tabulated towards the distal part of the tail : there are 6 rows of scales 

 pro centimeter. On the distal margin of each scale there are implanted 

 three short stiff hairs, very regularly, the longest in the middle: the 

 latter slightly surpasses a scale in length. As the scales are alterna- 



