rgoQ.J R. E. Lloyd : The Races of Indian Rats, 27 



burrowing in the same sort of soil. All the Nesokice have soft sleek 

 fur, but some of the Gunomys resemble them in this respect. If a 

 sleek Gunomys is placed in contact with a Nesokia so that the fur 

 of both intermingle, the resemblance between the two is sometimes 

 so great that not one point of difference can be appreciated. The 

 members of both genera are variable in colour but in the same way. 

 Those specimens of Gunomys which have harsh bristly fur can, of 

 course, be readily distinguished from the soft- furred Nesokia ; but 

 because some of the Gunomys are sleek, a mixture of the two 

 races cannot be readily separated by the appearance of the fur. 

 In length the Nesokice vary from 134 — ^186 mm. ; the Gunomys from 

 163 — 236; length is therefore of less value than colour in effecting 

 a separation. From a record of tail percentages of the two genera, 

 presented in the diagrammatic form shown on plate v, it might be 

 thought that this character provided a means of distinguishing the 

 two races ; however, the diagram shows that the Nesokia with the 

 longest tail, and the Gunomys with the shortest, both have a tail 

 percentage of 60, and the whole series of percentages range con- 

 tinuously from 49 — 83. The foot is of no more use than the tail in 

 identifying individuals of the two races. In the Museum the two 

 are distinguishable at a glance, for Nesokia has a very short pala- 

 tine foramen and broad incisor teeth (plate iii). The difference 

 between the two races must have been difficult to recognise in 

 the field. 



Captain Davys, however, noticed when opening the burrows 

 of mole-rats that they either contained small litters of young ones 

 (two to four) or large litters (eight to twelve) ; he also noticed that 

 the rats found in the former kind of burrow were usually smaller 

 and had relatively shorter tails than those found in the latter. 

 It was afterwards observed that females of the one race had few 

 teats — almost invariably two pectoral and two inguinal pairs — 

 while those of the other race had a continuous row of about eight 

 on either side. The difference in the number of the teats has long 

 been known and led to the latter race receiving the generic name 

 of Gunomys (the fruitful rat), the former retaining the name of 

 Nesokia. 



The difference between the apparent fertilit}^ of these two 

 races is amazing when we consider that they are living side b}" side 

 in neighbouring fields. If the Nesokia were the more fertile race, 

 we should of course triumphantly point to this power as an explana- 

 tion of the fact that the small race was able to live in competition 

 with the larger Gunomys. It is, however, the Gunomys which 

 appears to be two or three times more fertile than the Nesokia. 



The lengths of all the undoubted adults received, twenty-four 

 specimens in all, are shown on plate v ; they vary in length from 134 

 — 197 mm. It happens by chance that these twenty-four specimens 

 show about the same range of variation in length as exhibited by 

 the eighty-five Gunomys. If many more Nesokice had been measured 

 it is not likely that the range of variation would have become 

 much extended. The measurements of Mus rattus, Mus concolor. 



