On  a  new  species  of  Rat  from 
the  island  of  Flores 
P.  A.  JENTINK. 
With  Plate  Y. 
Prof.  Max  Weber  had  the  kindness  to  place  in  my  hands  for  in- 
vestigation a  large  Rat,  collected  in  the  island  of  Flores  (Sikka)  by 
the  reverend  dutch  priest  Le  Cocq  d'Armandville. 
It  is  an  enormous  animal  with  a  partly  yellow-coloured  tail.  In  the 
last  years  there  have  been  described  a  rather  large  number  of  so-called 
yellow-tailed  big  rats  from  the  Sunda-islands,  the  Moluccas,  New- Guinea 
and  Australia,  species  like  TJromys  macropus  and  validus,  Gymnomys 
xanthura  and  celebensis,  Mus  callithrichus ,  meyeri  and  macleari:  the 
more  we  come  eastward  the  more  the  number  of  species  seems  to 
increase.  It  would  be  prematurely  to  decide  as  yet,  if  these  partly 
yellow-tailed  rats  deserve  a  generic  distinction  from  the  other  large 
rats  with  uniformly  dark  coloured  tails,  and  this  because  their  study 
gives  rise  to  so  many  questions  on  which  the  generally  incomplete 
descriptions  do  not  answer.  Perhaps  coincide  with  a  partly  yellow 
tail  —  a  very  insignificant  characteristic  in  itself  —  f.  i.  short  and  wide 
anterior  palatine  foramina  and  large  molar  teeth!  What  we  need  is 
a  detailed  description  based  upon  a  carefully  and  maturely  considering 
of  the  different  characteristics,  derived  from  the  nature  of  the  exterior 
covering,  the  colour  of  upper  and  lower  parts,  the  hairiness  of  the 
tail ,  the  form  of  the  scales  on  tail  and  extremities ,  the  size  and  shape 
of  the  ears,  relative  length  of  toes,  shape  of  claws  or  nails,  further 
