The domestic cats (Felis catus) with short tails are found in Japan, eastern parts of China, East Africa, Madagascar and Man of Britain. In the Island of Man, the tailless cat has been fixed as the "manx." In Japan and in some parts of China, there had been a practice of bobbing long tails, because of their tails appearing weird and of prevailing superstition that cats had taken the form of a monster cat when they had grown old. In Japan, the cats were not recorded until 889 A.D., in a diary of the Emperor Uda. However, in olden literature, no descriptions were made as to the length of the lails of cats. At the end of the 11th century, a Buddhist priest called Kakuyu painted five long-tailed cats in the two sets of scroll paintings. After the 15th century, many famous painters painted cats, and they were all long-tailed ones influenced by Chinese painting in which long tails were thought to be beautiful. However, in realistic Ukiyoe (Japanese woodblock prints) which originated in the 18th century, painted were mostly short-tailed cats, and especially in the painting of 73 cats in a group done by Kuniyoshi Utagawa (1797-1861), 52 (71%) were short-tailed ones (among them). Hiroshige III (the third), painted 100 cats in 1878, and 97 were found short-tailed ones. However, as a matter of fact, ordinarily, the ratios between long and short tails were not so sharp as the above figures, and this should be interpreted as the direct reflection of the taste of the masses towards cats. Taking into consideration the fact that there was once a custom of bobbing tails, the writer is of the opinion that it can safely be said that in Japan after the 18th century long-tailed cats came to be disliked and elimi nated artificially and short-tailed ones increased in number instead.

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To analyze the variability expressed in the coloration of the ventral fur of Apodemus speciosus insperatus KURODA, 1938, 95 adult skins, collected from Oshima Is., Seven Islands of Izu, were carefully studied. By this examination, following phenomena were confirmed in this subspecies : 1. Five color types are distinguished in the ventral fur (Fig. 2). Among them types A and B are always connected with winter dorsal fur without spines and types D and E with summer dorsal fur with distinct spines (Table 1), therefore they are recognized as winter and summer ventral furs respectively. Type C is, however, intermediate and difficult to determine the nature exactly. 2. The molting occurs twice a year, one in April to May and the other in October to November. 3. Types A and B of winter pelage are white and buffy white respectively. While, types D and E of summer pelage are ochraceous-buff, at least on the central region, and remarkably darker than the winter pelage (seasonal polymor phism). 4. In the winter pelage, type A is more aboundant in the males than in the females, and in the summer pelage, type E is predominant in the females ; that is the females evidently darker than the males both in winter and summer pelages . Thus, obvious tendency to sexual polymorphism is observed.

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Twelve specimens of Myotis macrodactylus (TEMMINCK, 1800) from Yashima dokutsu Cave, Kagawa Pref., were examined by the author. The results obtained are as follows : 1. Besides the typical type of tragus which has been used as one of the index characters of this species, another type was recognized. The latter with anterior border of tragus nearly straight except extreme distalportion, resembling to that of Myotis mystacinus group. About 41.7 percent of the specimens examined belongs to this type. There are no correlation observed between these types and age or sex groups. 2. The longest among metacarpals is the third in adults, instead of the fifth in juveniles. Remarkable differences between different age groups were observed in these characters. 3. Mean of ratio of hind foot cum unguis to tibia is about 74.48 percent in adults and much larger than 65.9 percent of juveniles ; that is the hind foot of adults is relatively much larger than that of juveniles. This indicates that the large hind foot characterizing this species might be acquired by specialization. 4. The wing membrane inserted at ankle or lower portion of tibia. 54.2 percent of specimens examined belongs to the former type, and 45.2 percent to the latter type.

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On April 1, 1969, the fishermen of Otsu, Ibaragi Prefecture caught a so-called. white bellied right whale dolphin (Lissodelphis peroni), right whale dolphins (Lis sodelphis borealis) and white sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) which had been swimming together. External and skeletal observation was done on the white bellied right whale dolphin in comparison with the ten normal right whale dolphins which had been caught at the same area. The shape and proportion of their bodies are not different. However, the color pattern of the white bellied individual showed remarkable difference. The coloration of the former was black on dorsal, white on ventral and there were black spots at the keel on the tail flukes and the tip of the snout. The lateral view was that the white area extended to the insertion of the flippers and the upper jaw through beneath the eyes. There is also a white band on the both flippers, near the insertion, and the light gray pattern on the dorsal side of the tail flukes as well as white one on the ventral side. There is no other osteological difference in this distinct specimen except the number of bones in the second digit of the flipper.

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[in Japanese]

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Ognev's or Lesser Tube-nosed Bat (Murina aurata ussuriensis) is undoubtedly hibernating in wood-holes of large old forests near No. 4 dam of the upper course of Monbetsu River in Chitose City, Hokkaido, where Mr. H. Orii has discovered these bats and collected 2 specimens, November 18, 1956 and April 25, 1957, respectively.

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On the 14th and 15th of October 1968, the author snap-trapped some small mammals on the northwestern slope of Mt. Daisen (1,711.9m alt.), Tottori Pre fecture. The trapping area was from about 850 to 1,650m alt. The part lower than about 1,200 m alt. in the area was covered with a beech forest, while the upper part was covered densely with low shrubs which mainly consisted of Taxus cuspi data var. nana, Salix sp., Alnus pendula, Fagus crenata, Sorbus commixta, Acer rufinerve, Acer mono, Weigela sp., etc. Taxus cuspidata var. nana was dominant near the summit. The species and numbers of the small mammals collected there are shown in Table 1. Apodemus speciosus occurred in the beech forest. Urotrichus talpoidea occurred at about 1,200 m alt. and Microtus montebelli at about 1,650 m alt. near the summit. Anteliomys smithi and Apodemus argenteus were collected extensively at the upper part in the area. Dymecodon pilirostris occurred from about 1,400 to 1,600 m alt. The last species does not seem to have been reported previous/1, from Chugoku districts. It was hard to find out that the external and cranial measurements of four specimens of Dymecodon pilirostris were different from those of the specimens collected at Mt. Kuj?, Ky? sh? (Table 2). Out of the animals listed in Table 1, only one male of Microtus montebelli was in breeding condition, for its testes were large with the length of 11 mm. But the testes of the other kinds of males in the same table were small and none of them were reproductively active. No females were pregnant and their reproductive tracts were small. It seemed that a female of Apodemus speciosus was lactating.

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The Island of Izu-Oshima lies in the Pacific Ocean about 20 km off the southern coast of central Honshu, the main island of Japan. It has an area of 91.2 km². The vegetation of the Island of Izu-Oshima, apparently the laurilignosa climax, consisted chiefly of Machilus and Camellia. Comparisons have been made between the collections of Apodemus speciosus from Hondo, the main landmass of Japan (collected from various localities in Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu), and the Island of Izu-Oshima. The results can be summarized as follows. 1) The animals were divided into seven age groups by the degree of wearing of the third upper molar. 2) Regional variation in size is indicated by the measurements of tail length, hind-foot length and various skull dimensions. The overall trend can be represented thus : Izu-Oshima>Hondo. Tail length is indicated the reverse trend : Izu-Oshima<Hondo. 3) Allometric growth constants of various skull dimensions against to skull length may somewhat differ between the each form. 4) Upper and lower molar series lengths are longer in the Izu-Oshima form than the Hondo form. 5) There is a sharp distinction in the number of sacro-caudal vertebrae be tween the Izu-Oshima form and the Hondo form. 6) We noted that in island forms of rodents were seen the general trend to become larger in body size and hind-foot length, and to have shorter tail length and a smaller number of sacro-caudal vertebrae.

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This study aimed to clarify the effect of the change of altitude from about 1,100 m to 20 m to the number of red corpuscles per cubic millimetre (RBC) in Eothenomys kageus IMAIZUMI, 1957. Eight live specimens, used for this study, were collected at Mt. Haruna (alt. 1,100 m), central Honshu, Japan. They were transported to Tokyo and kept in a laboratory (alt. 20 m) at the National Science Museum. Then, the RBC number of those specimens which were different of the period of maintenance was counted in 13 times. The results obtained are as follows: 1. The RBC values between the samples which are different of the period of maintenance are not significantly different at the 95% confidence limits. 2. The distribution of the RBC number constitutes the normal curve. 3. Therefore, the seasonal changes and the influence of maintenance to the RBC number were hardly recognizable. 4. No evident correlation is observed between the RBC number and periods of maintenance in a low altitude condition. In this nature, Eothenomys kageus differes from Apodemus argenteus. It is not clear whether the stability of RBC number observed in this study is due to species characteristic of Eothenomys kageus or the effect of the change of latitude from 1,100 m to 20 m is too few to cause to change of RBC number. 5. The RBC in Eothenomys kageus of Mt. Haruna population is 9.724±0.416 (means ±95% confidence limits, in millions).

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[in Japanese]

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The authors recorded the following two examples of abnormity in the number of the upper molar in genus Apodemus: 1) Apodemus speciosus (male) (collected on Mt. Hakkoda, Aomori Pref., 30/V'64) which lacks the right upper lst molar. 2) Apodemus argenteus (male) (collected on Mt. Norikura, Nagano Pref., 1/VIII'64) with a supernumerary tooth in left upper molar region.

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Unusually large tusks of the unicorn are hunged on the wall of the entrance hall of Mansion Korinkaku of Prince Takamatsu in crossing status as a grand orna ment. How the ancester of the Prince got them is unknown. They were measured and each value was shown in Table 1. The tusks are almost same in length. But the stage of growth shown in the pulp cavities proved the fact that the age of the two animals were different each other. On the surface of the tusks, there are twisted rope like sculptures all over. The sculpture on a tooth or a baleen of some certain animals is generally considered as the record of growth and a roll or a ring indicate a year of growth. The rolls on the tusks become longer and longer to the root. The growth of tusk must however, be lesser in higher age and a strong heavy root is constructed to support such a great bulk of a tusk. Therefore each roll of the sculpture can not be counted as the year marks on a baleen plate of the whales.

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