465 



A SUB-DIVISION OF THE OLD GENUS NESOKIA, 

 WITH DESCRIPTIONS OF THREE NEW MEMBERS 

 OF THE GROUP, AND OF A MUS FROM THE 

 ANDAMANS. 



BY 



Oldfield Thomas. 



(From " The Annals and Magazine of Natural History'''' (7) xx, p. 202.) 



The genus Nesolcia contains three such very distinct and natural groups that 

 in accordance with modern ideas they should be recognized as distinct genera. 

 Their respective characters have already been described by Anderson, Blanford 

 and myself, but the most tangible may be briefly recapitulated as follows : — 



I. Nesokia, Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. x., p. 264 (1842). 



Type Arvicola indica* Gray & Hardwicke. (Nesokia Hardwichei, auctorum). 

 Skull short and broad. Palatal foramina short. Molars laminate, least mus- 

 like. 



Mammte 2-2=8. 



II. GuNOMYSf, gen. nov. 



Type. — Arvicola bengalensis. Gray & Hardwicke. (Nesohia bengalensis, r auct.) 

 Skull broad. Palatal foramina long. 

 Mammae irregular, 14-18 in number. 



III. Bandicota, Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (4) xii, p. 418 (1873). 

 Type, "Bandicota gigantea ", i.e., B. bandicota, Bechst. 



Skull comparatively long and narrow. Palatal foramina long. Molars most 

 7Mws-like. 



Mammae 3-3=12. 



These three genera are specialized in the order given, Nesohia being the 

 most extreme and the farthest from Mus, both in skull, tooth-structure, and 

 external characters, and Bandicota the nearest, while Gunomys is intermediate 

 between the other two. 



[Nesokia suilla, sp. n. being found in Egypt we have omitted Mr. Thomas' 

 desciiption. — Eds.] 



Gunomys varius, sp. n. 



The Malay representative of G. bengalensis. 



Size decidedly larger than in G. bengalensis. Fur very coarse and harsh 

 though not to be called spiny ; freely mixed with longer piles attaining 3—4 cm., 

 in length. General colour above coarsely mixed black and cream-buff, without 

 the brown tints of G. bengalensis. Individually the ordinary hairs are slaty at 

 base, black at tip, with a broad cream- buff subterminal band ; the longer piles 

 black a few of them white. Under surface dull grizzled greyish, the slaty-grey 

 bases of the hairs more conspicuous than their dull w tish tips. Head and 



* Beohstein's Mus indicus being now removed, as a Bandicota, from the genus Nesokia, the 

 specific term given by Gray and Hardwicke again becomes tenable for the animal usually 

 known as Nesokia Hardwickei. The same specimen (B. M. No. 99a) is the type of both names. 



t yov'vof, fruitful, prolific. 



