j/.i.i/.i/.iA/.i. 417 



Upper parts and tail rich uniform rul'oiis brown. Tail below brif^'ht rusty, busby 

 and (li.sticbous. Siiles of tbc faco and niiiri^in of tlio paracluite rcddisb yellow; dorsal 

 surface of paracliute dark brown. Below yellowish white, the hairs without a dark 

 base. The hairs of the upper parts with a grey basal portion. 



Body 9-00 ; tail 8 25 inches. 



Ranges from the Malayan Peninsula into Tenasscrim. 



P. SPADICECS, Blyth. 



Above bright rusty bay, below white, with the parachute, limbs and tail dusky. 

 The terminal third of the tail pale rufou.s. 

 Body 5 ; tail -l-2.i inches. 

 Inhabits Arakau. 



Famih/ Muridse. 



Much, very nuuli has yet to be done before any clear notion of the number of 

 species of these pci-plexing animals can be arrived at. Plat and dried skins are ne.\t 

 to useless for discriminating between allied species, and the animals should be pre- 

 served in spirits for the examination and comparison of a largo series. 



Under tlie heading of '• White-hellied Bat," Jfason remarks that "the Eats are 

 scarcely second to the Termites for the mischief th(y perpetrate. Thi'V burrow' in 

 the gardens and destroy the sweet potatoes ; they make their nests in the roofs by 

 day and visit our houses and larders liy night. Tliey will eat into teak drawers, 

 boxes, and book-cases, and can go up and down anything but glass. In the province 

 of Toung-ngoo they sometimes appear in immense numbers before harvest and devour 

 the paddy like locusts. In both 1857 and 1858 the Karens on the mountains west of 

 the city lost all their crops from this pest ; and it is said that they are equally 

 destructive occasionally in the eastern districts, but have not appeared for several 

 years. The natives say it is the same Eat as the one that freijuents houses." 



Again, he remarks that Mr. Cross, when on the Tcnasserim river a few months 

 ago (in 1858), wrote — "The people, in common with all who grow the hill paddy, 

 over an extent of country more than fifty miles s(juare, are suffering a famine of rice. 

 This is occasioned by swarms of Eats, which devoured the paddy, or rather cut down 

 the stalks, j nst as the ears began to fill. The Eats twice visited some parts of this 

 territory'during the season, so that scarcely a stalk of rice escaped them. I met with 

 two of these animals, swimming the Tenasscrim where it is more than a quarter of a 

 mile wide, and succeeded in capturing one. The animal is about five inches from the 

 nose to the end" (base?) "of the tail, of a slim and nimble appearance, the belly 

 white, and the rest a mouse colour. During the rains, when the river is much wider 

 and more rapid, these Eats crossed in columns, as the people say, so abundantly that 

 a boat, in passing through, caught bushels of them. They only make their appear- 

 ance at long intervals, like the locusts of other places. It is said to be from twenty 

 to thirty years since they visited the country before, to any great extent." 



It would be out of place to attempt in a work like the present any account of 

 the synonymy of the Burmese species of Mns, but some of the principal ones are 

 extracted from a copy of Blyth's memoir of the rats and mice of India, in my posses- 

 sion, corrected by the author, and six new species added, collected by Anderson in 

 Yuuan. 



Mrs, Liinucus. 



M. (Nesokia) ixnicA, Gcoffroy. 



Anicola indica, Gray (Hardw. III. Ind. Zool.). 



Mus {Ncoloma) providem, Elliot l,Mad. Jour. Lit. Soc. 1839, p. 209). 

 Mas Jul-, Gray (Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, p. 585). 

 Mi/.<) Jlarilwickii, Gray (^idem). 

 Mils pi/cfuris, Hodgson. 



KcMkia Griffithi, Horsfield (Moore's India House Cat. Mamm.). 

 This is the type of Gray's genus Ne^ohia, whose chief claim to separation would 

 seem to be bused on its somewliat more powerful incisors and a fancied resemblance 



27 



