CLASSIFICATION OF THE BANDICOOTS. 751 



characterises the B. gigantea group, in this rather resembling 

 B. nemorivaga and its allies. The underfur is a greyish white tipped 

 with bright buff. The skull is considerably smaller than in giyantea, 

 with rather short nasals, very different, as Anderson points out, from 

 the broad nasals of gigantea. 



Dimensions of the Indian Museum specimen mentioned above, 

 taken in the flesh, are : — 



Head and body 275 mm. ; tail 235 ; hind foot 51 ; ear 21. 



Skull : greatest length 58 : basilar length 51 ; zygomatic breadth 

 32 ; nasals 20 5 ; diastema 18*5 ; upper molar series 10 4. 



Anderson included in his species specimens from Purneah, Sibsagar 

 and even the Khasi Hills, but the first one of which details are 

 recorded was a Calcutta specimen, and must be accepted as the type. 



(5) Bandieota indica, Bechst. 

 1800. Mus indicus, Bechst. Allgem. Uebers vierfuss, Thiere, p. 713. 



1800. Mus bandieota, Bechst. Allgem. Uebers. vierfuss, Thiere, p. 714. 



1801. Mus per dial, Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. p. 54. 



Thomas, in his paper on the Indian Muridae (P. Z. S. 1881, p. 

 528), recognized that Pennant's " Perchal Rat " and " Bandicote 

 Rat'' were the same thing, and this view has been universally accept- 

 ed since. For these names Bechstein in his edition of Pennant's 

 book substituted the Latin ones indicus and bandieota. By an over- 

 sight Thomas wrote " bundicota and indicus" and in this has been 

 followed by other writers ; but, as will be seen from the references 

 quoted above, indica is the old?r name and must stand for the species. 



The type locality is Pondicherry. I unfortunately have been 

 unable to examine any specimen from the east coast of Madras except 

 an immature one from Nellore, but, allowing for age, I can find no 

 great difference between it and two Nilgiri specimens. Accepting 

 these as representing indica, that species is slightly smaller than 

 elliotana on the one side and malabarica on the other. 



The underfur has no markedly coloured tip as is usual in this genus, 

 the basally whitish hairs merely becoming tinged with buffy in 

 their distal half ; the result is a general drab coat overlaid on the 

 back, and especially the rump, by a " mantle " of dark brown. 



The skull, though not much smaller than that of elliotana and 

 malabarica in over all measurements, is strikingly more delicately 

 formed in all details : the bullae are distinctly smaller. 

 6 



