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Description of another new species of Piha, (Lagomys) from the 

 Himalaya. By Edward Blyth, Curator of the Asiatic Society. 



The genus of the Pikas, {Lagomys^ Cuvier,) which, until the com- 

 paratively recent discovery of a species upon the Rocky Mountains of 

 North America, by Dr. Richardson, was known only by the figures and 

 elaborate descriptions supplied by Pallas of three species, inhabiting 

 the Steppes of Northern Asia, has lately been detected upon the Hi- 

 malaya range by Dr. Royle, w^ho carried home a single imperfect skin 

 of a decidedly new species from the Choor Mountain, (subsequently to 

 which, however, other and perfect skins have been obtained,) while 

 another new species is now figured and described, (Plate — ) by Mr. 

 Hodgson from Nepal, to which I have the pleasure of adding a 

 seventh, recognised by Captain Broome, as of common occurrence in 

 Lahoul, Ladakh, and Kooloo, and which extending westward, may pos- 

 sibly also be the " small species of Lagomys,'^ noticed by Captain 

 Thomas Hutton, as an inhabitant of the hills of Afghanistan.* 



The materials for description consist of a skull and perfect skin, (now 

 mounted,) which were presented to the Asiatic Society, by their late 

 Honorary Curator, Dr. Evans. The animal is in all respects a typical 

 Lagomys, which precludes the necessity of entering into such details, 

 as are of generic rather than specific application. From Dr. Royle's 

 species, (Z. Roylii, Ogilby,) and that now described by Mr. Hodgson, 

 by the appellation Nipalensis, the present animal is at once distin- 

 guished by its inferior size, measuring but 6 inches in length, though the 

 condition of the skull proves the specimen to have been fully grown, 

 and its sex is male ; from heel-joint to extremity of middle toe-nail 

 measures \^ inch, the ears (posteriorly) | inch and | inch broad; and the 

 moustaches are very long, a few of these vibrissas exceeding 2-^ inches, 

 and passing considerably beyond the tips of the ears. The general 

 cast of colour^ approaches that of an English Water Vole ( Hypudceus 

 Aquaticus), judging from memory of the latter, having a distinct rufous 

 tinge, and the fur, which is delicately soft as in all the genus, consists, 

 as usual, of two kinds, diff'ering only in the longer having coarser tips 

 of another colour, which latter is alone visible at the surface ; these 



* Vide Calcutta Journal of Natural History, vol. i. p. 558. 



