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Message: <blockquote data-quote="l_raty" data-source="post: 3272483" data-attributes="member: 24811">In Latin, <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dmas" target="_blank">mas</a> can mean "masculine" if used as an adjective, or "a male" if used as a substantive. It's an entire word, not an abbreviation (mas, gen. maris); very commonly used in Latin descriptions. From the title and description of the work, I would assume that Herr Major Kreling offered mammal and bird specimens from Sumatra to the Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, and this is a published list of these specimens...? (In which case "mas." might indicate that among them was a male of Turdus mure.)But of course it's not really possible to be sure what is meant in this entry using just the info that we have here... It might help to see a couple of other entries of this list, I think. And, perhaps, to know how the different words are printed (possible italics, fraktur?).</blockquote>