Systematics of the Genus Mus

My purpose is first to show how the geographic color races of Mus musculus can be identified by coat color and tail length (Fig. 1); second, to report specimens that appear to link domesticus with musculus by intergradation around the back way in Asia; and third, to identify anew specimens in the National Museum of Natural History by means of the cranial traits discovered by Darviche and Orsini (1982). The resulting nomenclature of the genus Mus, based on morphology and distribution, is commensurate in its species-limits with other genera of Muridae that have not received intensive biochemical study.