WILD FORMS OR SUBSPECIES OP MUS MU3CULUS. 179 



chott du Hodna, Hauts-Plateaux Algeriens," I think it very 

 possible that these slight differences in colour are merely due to 

 individual peculiarities, and that the extra "talon" of the first 

 upper molar of M. Lataste's specimen will not be found in other 

 examples. At all events I prefer to identify my specimens with 

 his Mus spretus than to make a new species or subspecies of them, 

 and I think my views gain support from an examination of a 

 considerable number of specimens of Mus miisculus-\\ke animals 

 from various localities now in the British Museum collection. 

 These specimens are very puzzling, for the extreme forms, though 

 at first sight very distinct, intergrade in a wonderful manner. 

 They, however, seem to bear out Mr. Thomas's suggestion that 

 we have in many parts of Europe, as well as in N. Africa, Arabia, 

 and Asia, two forms of the Mus musculus group which differ from 

 each other in coloration, one of which is to be found in houses, 

 and the other in the fields and open country. Whether there 

 exist more than one of these wild forms is as yet a doubtful 

 question, but the following forms have received names, and perhaps 

 it would be well to retain them as subspecies of Mus musculus, for 

 the present at least. Possibly in the future one or more of them 

 may have to be suppressed, but more specimens are needed before 

 the matter can be thoroughly worked out. 



(I.) Mus musculus bactrianus* Blyth, 1846. — This mouse has 

 a wide distribution in Africa and Asia, and appears to be the 

 common house mouse of Southern Persia and the neighbouring 

 regions, f It has the upper parts fallow-red and the under parts 

 yellow or white. M. Lataste has shown that it cannot be dis- 

 tinguished from Mus musculus proper, except in colour, and it 

 resembles very closely Mus musculus flavescens. 



(II.) Mus musculus flavescens, J Fischer, 1872, which has a 



* J. A. S. B. xv. 1846, p. 140 ; and xxxii. p. 347. Blyth also ultimately 

 united with this species his E. gerbillinus, from the Punjab (vide J. A. S. B. 

 xxii. p. 410), and M. theobaldi, from Kashmir (vide J. A. S. B. xxii. p. 583.) 



f Vide Blanford's ' Zoology of Eastern Persia,' vol. ii. pp. 56, 57, where 

 this mouse is figured. 



| Fischer, " Das Verfarben einer Hausmaus, Mus musculus, var. flave- 

 scens" (Zool. Gart. xiii. 1872, pp. 223-224). Fischer's specimen was from 

 Berlin, but he was evidently unaware that the name flavescens had been 

 previously bestowed by Elliot (Madr. Journ. Lit. Sci. x. p. 214, 1839) on 

 a variety of Mus alexandrinus, or rattus, and by Waterhouse (P. Z. S. 1837, 

 p. 19) on a mouse from Chili, A similar form, or variety, is evidently alluded 



p2 



