The whole naked space at the nostrils is not above a line wide. The mouth is small and far
back. The whiskers are fine, black, and longer than the head. The eyes are small. The
ears are nearly five lines high, of a semi-oval form, broadly rounded at the tips. They are
clothed behind, and also on the inside near the margins, with short black hairs, mixed with
some yellow ones. Their edges are pale.
Colour.—The back and the upper parts of the head are covered with hairs of a dark liver-
brown colour, mixed with a few brownish-yellow ones. The sides are brownish-yellow, slightly
sprinkled with black hairs. The margin of the mouth, the chin, the throat, and all the lower
parts of the body are white. The yellowish-brown of the sides joins the white of the belly by
a straight line extending between the fore and hind extremities. In some specimens this
yellowish-brown colour occupies as much space as the darker colour of the back; in others, the
latter encroaches so much on the sides as to leave merely a narrow yellowish line next the
white ; whilst in autumn specimens, when the animal has just acquired a new coat of fur, the
dark colour of the back adjoins the white of the belly. The fur of this animal is not so long
or so fine as that of the common or meadow-mice.
Extremities.—The fore ones are small and very short, the tip of the middle claw not projecting
above half an inch from the body. They are covered above with short, whitish hairs.
The palms are naked, and there are four slender toes armed with small, nearly straight,
compressed acute nails. There is also a minute rudiment of a thumb, protected by a rounded
nail, and situated considerably behind the root of the inner toe. The hind-legs are long and
very slender, and there are five hind-toes, each with a very long slender tarsal bone. The
inner-toe is the smallest and furthest back ; the outer one is the next smallest, and the three
middle ones are longer. They are all armed with small nails, not quite so much compressed
as the fore ones. The upper surface of the feet and toes is covered with very short
grayish hairs. The soles are naked to the heels. The tail is very long, tapers slightly, and
is scaly, and thinly set with short hairs. It has no tuft at the end, but the hairs there are a
little longer than elsewhere. It is of a dark brown colour above, and white beneath.
In ch e s.
Length of bead and body • < 4
head ■ • • • 1
,, tail . • . 5
„ from wrist joint to end of middle claw 0
D i m e n s i o n s .
62
3
n
Length from knee to ankle joint
,, from heel to end of middle claw
Height of the ears posteriorly .
04