180 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



reddish brown upper and a light yellow under side. According to 

 Lataste it occurs in Mid-France, Spain, Italy, and the Mediter- 

 ranean Isles; but there are specimens in the British Museum from 

 Western Hungary that I can only refer to this form, while others 

 from the same lot resemble very closely my Tangier specimens. 

 Examples of this most probably intergrade with those of the 

 preceding form. 



(III.) Mus musculus spretus, Lataste (op. cit. 1883), to which 

 form probably belong my Tangier specimens, as well as Messrs. 

 Grant and Baring's mice from the Salvage Isles (Zool. 1895, 

 p. 409). Unless the extra "talon" of the first upper molar can 

 be shown to be constant, I should be inclined to allow Mus 

 spretus only subspecific rank, since it certainly appears to inter- 

 grade with Hungarian specimens in the British Museum. Messrs. 

 Grant and Baring's specimens vary somewhat in the distinctness 

 of the line of demarcation between the upper and under sides, and 

 some of them in this respect come very close to Lataste's descrip- 

 tion. A very large specimen sent to the British Museum from 

 Corsica by Col. J. W. Yerbury resembles these ; while one from 

 Malta, presented by Lord Lilford, is more like what I imagine the 

 typical flavescens to be. 



The following are the dimensions of some of Messrs. Grant 

 and Baring's specimens : — 



$ <? ? $ ? ? ? 



Head and body . 78 85 83 87 80 90 85 mm. 



Tail 74 87 85 84 86 89 89 „ 



Hind-foot ... 17 18-5 175 18 18 185 17 „ 



The specimens differ from my Tangier mice and also from M. 

 Lataste's decription of Mus spretus in the larger size of the tail. 

 There are also very interesting forms or varieties in the British 

 Museum collection from Asia Minor, Quang-tung, and even from 



to by the description : " Mus cauda longa mediuscula, corpore cinereo-fusco, 

 abdomine subalbescente " (Linn. Mus. Ad. Frid. i. p. 9), and " Mus domesticus 

 minor, cauda longa subnuda, corpore fusco-cinerascente, abdomine albicante" 

 (Brown, Jour. p. 484) ; also by De Selys-Longchamps, in his ' Faune Beige ' 

 (1842), p. 32, as the var. d. rousdtre. What the true name of this form or 

 subspecies may be I am not prepared to state here ; but it seems that Fischer's 

 name will not stand. Possibly the proper name would be Mus musculus 

 brevirostris of Waterhouse, who described Mus brevirostris (Proc. Zool. Soc. 

 1837, p. 19), and afterwards stated that it was a variety of Mus musculus 

 ('Voyage of the Beagle,' p. 38). 



