1909] R. E. Lloyd : The Races of Indian Rats. 77 



It has been recently proved that both in Calcutta and Dacca 

 these rats occur in large numbers not only in stables and out-houses 

 but also in shops and dwelling-houses. Some doubt perhaps still 

 remains as to whether this occurrence may not be due to a tem- 

 porary and fluctuating migration of these rats, which have long 

 been known tvS dwellers in the fields. In Rangoon, however, the 

 evidence was clear that they live continually and propagate them- 

 selves in dwelling-houses in the heart of the city. 



A case of plague having occurred in a certain house (No. 65 

 Maung Khyine Street), a number of traps were set in that house 

 by the Municipal rat-catchers ; on the following day these traps 

 were brought to the collecting station containing five pure black 

 Gunomys. Traps were set in adjacent houses, and on the next night 

 from house No. 65 one other was obtained, and from the adjacent 

 house, No. 66, three precisely similar rats were obtained. Again 

 on the following night one more was obtained from house No. 66. 

 After this no more were obtained. 



The writer visited these houses and noticed where the traps 

 were placed. Both houses were built principally of wood, and 

 consisted of upper and lower rooms, the former being closed and 

 unoccupied. Number 65 was a tailor's shop and dwelling-house. 

 Number 66 was a laundry. The houses were divided by a double 

 partition of thin planking separated by a narrow space. The floors 

 were tiled. In front the houses opened directly on to the street, 

 behind on to the ' ' back drainage space." 



The ten rats taken in these two houses could be recognised 

 at a glance by their pure black colour from any other Gunomys 

 taken from other parts of the city. They must have been closely 

 related as a family to one another. It seems much more likely 

 that they had been bred where thej^ were found, than that they 

 had migrated together as a family from the fields. If the more 

 probable view is the correct one, it can be asserted that these Gunomys 

 rear their young within the houses in the manner of house rats. 

 The houses in which they were found had no adjacent garden or 

 waste space available for the making of burrows. 



The '' back drainage space " was, owing to the daily cleansing, 

 as unsuitable for the rearing of a field rat's family as the busy 

 street itself. No one who has seen traps from houses brought in 

 daily, contaimng Gunomys, mature, immature and pregnant, can 

 doubt that these rats, which are perhaps the commonest field rats 

 in India, have become permanent parasites of man within some 

 of the larger towns. 



Of these ten rats, four were brought to Calcutta. Their mea- 

 surements are as follows : — 



