80 
attains  the  largest  size,  especially  as  to  the  hind  foot,  which  organ 
measures  according  to  Oldfield  Thomas  66  Millimeters:  it  therefore 
(cf.  the  measurement  given  above  86  Mm.)  is  much  smaller  than  M. 
armandvillei ,  moreover  M.  imperator  bears  another  mode  of  colouring 
and  has  not  a  partly  yellow  tail. 
I  think  it  better  to  take  Mus  giganteus  Hardwicke,  Nesokia  gigantea 
of  the  modern  authors,  not  in  consideration,  for  meanwhile  Hardwicke 
described  and  figured  its  tail  as  „  having  the  last  inch  naked  and  dif- 
fering in  colour  from  the  rest"  the  modern  authors  describe  its  tail 
as  „  black"  ;  so  that  either  Hardwicke's  animal  had  a  mutilated  (excoriated) 
tail,  or  the  lighter  coloured  tip  of  the  tail  is  not  constant  in  that  spe- 
cies, or  M.  giganteus  of  the  modern  authors  is  another  species  as 
Hardwicke's.  For  the  rest  it  has  nothing  in  common  with  our  Flore- 
sian  Rat. 
The  pelage  of  Mus  armandvillei,  as  in  the  other  species,  consists  of 
three  kinds  of  hairs,  short  woolly  mouse-coloured  underfur  with  tips  of 
a  reddish  brown  colour,  longer  black  bristles  and  white  coloured  black 
tipped  flat  flexible  spines,  intermediate  in  length  between  the  two  other 
kinds  of  hairs.  The  bristles,  being  the  longest,  project  therefore  beyond 
the  other  hairs.  The  fur  is  rather  short,  the  longest  bristle  on  the 
back  does  not  surpass  35  Mm.  Towards  the  underparts  of  the  body 
and  inside  of  the  extremities  the  projecting  bristles  become  white  tipped , 
so  that  these  parts  have  a  much  lighter  hue  than  the  upper  parts. 
In  macropus  the  mouth,  throat,  chest,  belly,  inside  of  legs  and  upper 
surface  of  the  feet  are  white.  M.  armandvillei  has  hands  and  feet  co- 
vered with  short,  slightly  curved  dark  coloured  stiff  hairs,  which  turn 
white  towards  the  extremities  of  the  fingers;  the  named  hairs  are 
placed  in  very  regular  parallel  rows. 
The  skin  of  the  ears  is  black,  externally  and  internally  clad  with 
a  few  very  short,  scattered,  dark  coloured  hairs.  Vibrissae  very  nume- 
rous, black  and  rather  elongate,  the  longest  measuring  about  10  cen- 
timeters. 
The  tail  covered  with  rather  large  oblong  square  scales,  alternately 
(see  plate  V,  figs.  6  and  7)  imbricated  at  its  root,  more  and  more 
tabulated  towards  the  distal  part  of  the  tail:  there  are  6  rows  of  scales 
pro  centimeter.  On  the  distal  margin  of  each  scale  there  are  implanted 
three  short  stiff  hairs,  very  regularly,  the  longest  in  the  middle:  the 
latter  slightly  surpasses  a  scale  in  length.  As  the  scales  are  alterna- 
