54 
SECOND YARKAND MISSION. 
A third closely allied species is very probably M. hortulamus 1 2 from Odessa, but that is 
ratlier larger, reddish-brown above, and dirty tawny below. Another allied form is apparently 
M. prcetcxtus' 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 
cauclaque griseo-fulvus, subtus abrupte Candidas, 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 (M. tokmak ? n. spj a 
form, which he says only differs from M. wagneri in its larger size, in which it approaches M. 
sylvaiicus. It is a house-mouse, and said to have been obtained in a house in a village built 
in 1864. 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 EKYTHBONQTTTS. 
W. Blank, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1875, Ser. 4, xvi, p. 311.—Eastern Persia, ii, p. 54, PL V, fig. 3. 
Mm sylvatictis, var. W. Blank, J. A. S. B., 1875, xliv, Pt. 2, 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 Noxdmann, apud Wagner, Supp. Sekvei). Saugth., iii, p. 410. 
2 Lickt., 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 Saugthiere, iv, p. 651, PI. CLXXX; Wagn. Supp. iii, p. 411, &c. 
6 Saugthiere Deutsch lands, p. 322. 
