WILD FORMS OR SUBSPECIES OP MUS MUSCULUS. 181 



America, whose presence only serves to complicate the whole 

 matter. 



The above are the names which have at various times been 

 given to the more distinct races or subspecies of Mus musculus. 

 But although the extreme forms are quite distinct in each case, 

 they are so connected with each other by a series of gradations, 

 that I very much doubt if they can stand as species, especially 

 if Lataste's dental distinction for his Mus spretus turn out to be, 

 as I suspect, a merely individual peculiarity. Hence I have here 

 given them merely subspecific rank, a course which, I think, gets 

 rid of the difficulty. 



Of other species which have been described by various authors, 

 Mus algirus,l?ome\ y * 1856, has been identified by M. Lataste with 

 Mus sylvatlcus, Linnaeus; Mus algirus } \ Loche (non Pomel), 1867, 

 with Mus musculus bactrianus, Blyth (or some very similar variety) ; 

 Mus cham<eropsis,t Levaillant, with Gerbillus campestris t and Mus 

 reboudi^ Loche, with Mus musculus bactrianus. 



Mus poschiavinus,\\ Fatio, 1869, is a black form of M. musculus , 

 which was found commonly in a tobacco manufactory at Poschiavo, 

 in the Canton Grisons, where it fed on tobacco. There remain 

 four very doubtful species, viz. Mus gilvuSyM M. trizonus, M. spiel- 

 legus, and M. arundinaceus, which were described by C. Chyzer in 

 1882, from MSS. left at his death by Dr. Petenyi. The work 

 being in Hungarian is almost a closed book to me, but so far as 

 I can make out from the Latin " notse specifics " and the dimen- 

 sions of the specimens as given by the author, it is possible that 

 the first two will be found to be synonyms of Mus sylvaticus, while 

 M. spicilegus is probably a form of M. musculus possibly identical 

 with M. musculus flavescens, and M. arundinaceus seems to have 

 been described from a large example of M. minutus. 



* Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. 1856, p. 654. 



f Cat. Mamni. et Ois. observes en Algerie, p. 25, et Expl. Sci. de l'Algerie* 

 p. 115, 1867. 



I Explor. Sci. de l'Algerie, 1867, pi. 5, fig. 1. 



§ Expl. Sci. de Algerie, Mamm., p. 116. 



|| Faune Suisse p. 207, pi. 7. 



IT 'Reliquiae Petenyianae : Terines-Fuzetek, N. (1881), p. 91, 1882. 



