116 MAMMALS OF THE PACIFIC WORLD 



than half of this ; the fur is velvety, blackish bay in color. Both 

 are quite rare. 



The Philippine Shrew Rat {Rhynchomys) is known only 

 from the mountains of northern Luzon. Its total length is about 

 fourteen inches, including the five-and-three-fourths-inch tail. 

 The velvety fur is dull olive-gray. The upper incisors are white, 

 short and weak ; the cheek-teeth minute and only two in number 

 on each side. Its teeth suggest that it may feed only on soft- 

 bodied insects and worms, but nothing is known of its habits 

 and only a very few specimens have been taken. 



Giant Rats (Hyomys, Anisomys, Uromys), heavy -bodied and 

 about two and one-half feet in length, occur in New Guinea. 

 They are not closely related to one another but look much alike. 

 The New Guinea mosaic-tailed rat (Uromys) also reaches north- 

 ern Australia and the Solomon Islands. The smaller mosaic- 

 tailed rats (Melomys), closely related to Uromys, are only 

 eight to fourteen inches in total length. Like Uromys, they have 

 nearly naked tails, the scales of which do not overlap but are 

 set edge to edge. These rats (Melomys) are found from the 

 Talaut Islands and the Moluccas to the Solomon Islands and 

 Australia. 



Many other rare and little-known rats with cheek-teeth of 

 simple, Rattus-like pattern occur on the islands between the 

 Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, and the Solomons. 



Certain Indo-Australian rats which look much like house rats 

 have complex teeth, the patterns of the cross-ridges in the upper 

 cheek-teeth trefoil-like rather than simple crescents or straight 

 lines. Lenomys, which represents this group in Celebes, is about 

 twenty or twenty-two inches in total length, with the tail about 

 half of this. Mallomys of New Guinea is much larger, two to 

 two and one-half feet in total length, with the tail about fifteen 

 inches. 



The Complex-toothed Tree Mouse (Chiropodomys) of Su- 

 matra, Java, and Borneo is small, the different forms varying 

 from about six inches to a foot in total length, with the tail 



