76 Miscellaneous. 



his catalogue, and gives the identical habitat where Dr. Hodges found 

 it, and where I have annually for many years observed it growing. 

 Belfast, Aug. 13, 1842. Francis Whitla. 



On a new species of Lagomys inhabiting Nepal. By B. H. Hodgson, 

 Esq., Resident at the Court of Nepal*. 

 Two fine specimens, male and female, lately received from Go- 

 sainthan, enable me to add the genus Lagomys to the Catalogue of 

 Nepalese Mammals ; and it may be remarked as characteristic of the 

 enormous and sudden inequalities of elevation proper to this king- 

 dom, that the tropical genus Rhizomys, and the arctic genus Lagomys, 

 have been taken within forty miles of each other. 



The specimens of the latter genus just procured by me were shot 

 by my hunters on the margin of the sacred lake whence the Trisal 

 Ganga River issues, and close to the verge of perpetual congelation. 

 There were but a pair, of which both were obtained, as they moved 

 about in the vicinity of the small natural cavity or rocky fissure that 

 formed their abode. Their stomachs were full of fresh vegetable 

 matter, like the contents of a hare's belly ; nor was there near their 

 abode any evidence of the hoarding propensities of the genus, or of 

 a habit of digging for food. The height of the summer being the 

 season at which the animals were taken, may explain the former cir- 

 cumstance however, but not the latter ; and though it is said that these 

 rat-hares dig for their food occasionally, I fancy this must be a mistake. 

 My species appears to be nearly allied to Roylii, and possibly may 

 be identical, but I think not. The male of the pair is seven inches 

 long from snout to vent, and the female half an inch less. The ge- 

 neral appearance of the species is that of a guinea-pig, but the na- 

 tives of India, who know no such animal, liken it to a rat ; and as 

 its Leporine teeth and soles (of the feet) are not obtrusive signs, the 

 association of it to the Murine race seems natural enough. Its ge- 

 neral likeness, for instance, to the Rhizomys, or bamboo rat, is very 

 noticeable, particularly as the latter is apt to hide its tail. But a 

 nice observer will at once mark the greater superior massiveness of 

 the head in Rhizomys, together with the smaller eyes and ears, and 

 will not be slow to refer these peculiarities to the highly fossorial 

 habits of that genus. 



Our present subject, which we shall name provisionally " Nepa- 

 lensis," has a moderate hare-like head, but ears quite similar to those 

 of the common rat, with the exception of that small internal process 

 near the conch, which seems proper to the Lagomides. The ear is 

 rather less than half the length of the head, is truncated, rounded, 

 and nearly nude, except on the anterior and incurved edge of the 

 helix, where very short hairs are pretty closely set. The upper and 

 outer pair of front teeth have a very deep longitudinal groove, so as 

 to look like four instead of two ; but neither these nor the inferior 

 pair are at all remarkable for size or strength, offering in this respect 



* This and the following notice are taken from the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, No. 35. 



