54 



SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 



A third closely allied species is very probably M. hortulanus 1 from Odessa, but that is 

 rather larger, reddish-brown above, and dirty tawny below. Another allied form is apparently 

 M. pr&tesctus* from Arabia and Syria, but it has a reddish streak down each side, naked ears, 

 and the tail dark on both sides. 



There is yet another Western Asiatic mouse, Mus wagneri, originally described 3 from 

 the country between the lower Volga and the Ural Mountain in the following terms : — Supra 

 caudaque griseo-fulvus, subtus abrupte candidus, auriculis majusculis, verruca halucari 

 lamnata, ( ? laminata,) Cauda quam corpus breviore. The colour does not agree with that 

 of M. pachycercus, and in the latter the hallucar tubercle is not laminated. Mus. wagneri, too, 

 is smaller than M. minutus of Pallas, which is a smaller animal than M. pachycercus. 



According to Severtzoff 4 M. wagneri is an extremely common resident throughout 

 Western Turkestan. He also mentions as Mus wagneri, var. major (31. tokmak ? n. sp .) a 

 form, which he says only differs from M. wagneri in its larger size, in which it approaches M. 

 sylvaticus. It is a house-mouse, and said to have been obtained in a house in a village built 

 in 18G4. No dimensions are given, nor any description except the comparison with M. wag- 

 neri. Tokmak is the name of a town between Vernoe and Auliata, lying north-west of 

 Lake Issik and nearly due north of Kashghar. It is far from clear whether M. tokmak 

 is proposed as a name, and the description is insufficient to enable the species to be recog- 

 nized. 



37. MUS ERYTHK.ONOTUS. 



W. Blanf., Ann. Mag-. Nat. Hist., 1875, Ser. 4, xvi, p. 311.— Eastern Persia, ii, p. 54, PI. V, fig. 3. 

 Mus sylvaticus, var- W. Blanf., J. A. S. B., 1875, xliv, Pt. %, p. 108; nec Linn. 



1, Kashghar ; 2, 3, 4, 5, Panjah, Wakhan. 



In external characters there is very little difference between the skins from Kashghar 

 and Wakhan, and those of the long-tailed field mouse of Europe, M. sylvaticus, and in the 

 preliminary list of Dr. Stoliczka's collections the specimens in question were assigned to the 

 European species. The means of comparison were small, the specimens of M. sylvaticus in 

 the Indian Museum had faded in colour from exposure, and no skull was available. At the 

 same time I was disposed to consider Mus erythronotus, described by myself from Persia, as 

 a variety of M. sylvaticus. The skins from Kashghar and Wakhan, I may add, agree very 

 fairly with the description of M. sylvaticus by Schreber 5 and Blasius. 6 



Recently, however, I have been enabled, by the kindness of Dr. Anderson, to compare 

 skulls of the Wakhan mouse with one of M. sylvaticus, and although the two are nearly 

 allied, there are some differences which make me doubtful whether the former may not 

 belong to a distinguishable race. The skull of Mus sylvaticus compared is smaller, measur- 

 ing only an inch in length, and is from an English specimen. The shape is, in most respects, 

 similar, but when viewed from behind, the occipital portion is much higher in proportion 



1 Nordrnann, apad Wagner, Supp. Schreb. Saugth., iii, p. 410. 

 2 , Licht., apud Wagner, Supp. Schreb. Saugth., iii, p. 422. 



3 Eversman, Bull. Soc. Hist. Nat. Mosc, 1848, i, p. 191, PI. I, fig. 2. 



4 Turk. Jev., p. 61; Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., July, 1876, Ser. 4, xviii, p. 53 



5 Siiugthiere, iv, p. 651, PI. CLXXX; Wagn. Supp. iii, p. 411, &e. 



6 Saugth iere Deutsch lands, p. 322. 



