20 



Records of the Indian Museum. 



[Vol. Ill, 



in this value shown by Lots L. T. and D. C. can only be explained 

 by supposing that the rats were taken from groups the members 

 of which had collectively different tail lengths. 



In the proportions of hind feet and ears the Punjab race does 

 not seem to differ from the Calcutta race. 



Colour. — As regards colour the Punjab rats are peculiar in one 

 respect. They are less variable than the rats of many other parts 

 of India. Among many thousands, not one melanotic form was 

 met with. Those that were received b}^ the Museum were in spirit, 

 so that fine differences in colour could not be easily appreciated. 

 A considerable number of them were washed and dried ; in these 

 the coloured element of the fur was alwa^'s of a reddish brown tint. 

 The occurrence of white-bellied forms in the Punjab is of particular 

 interest. , 



Pjh. 2, the white-bellied race — 



The Museum had been receiving rats from the Punjab for some 

 months without obtaining a single example of the white-bellied 

 type. Because of the recent observations on the rats of Calcutta, 

 it was thought to be one of the attributes of the species Mus rattus 

 to produce white-bellied forms occasionall}', and yet although the 

 rats that were arriving from the Punjab were exactly like man\' of 

 the Calcutta race, there were no white-bellied ones among them, 

 Consequenth^ Captain Davys was addressed on the subject. He 

 replied that although he had often met with rats having pale 

 coloured under parts, he had never, in the Punjab, seen a pure 

 white-bellied rat like those he had previously noticed in Simla, 

 which were as white below as a Gerbilltis. 



Later on, however, a few white-bellied rats were sent from 

 the Punjab, and finally a considerable number of them. Davys 

 paid special attention to the subject, and found that they could 

 always be obtained from three particular villages out of the sixty- 

 nine over which his operations extended. The other villages only 

 contained the dark-bellied t3^pe. The three particular villages are 

 not adjacent, one of them is in the Lahore district. As the question 

 is important from more than one point of view (see pages 85, 92) 

 the list will be quoted as we have received it. The rat-catching 

 measures in the Punjab will doubtless be continued, so that it will 

 be possible to confirm or modify the statement at a later date. 



