igog.] R. E. IvLOYD : The Races of Indian Rats. 8^ 



two specimens stand alone among 22,000 rats taken from the villages 

 of the Amritsar district. In the remarkable character of their 

 tails they exactly resemble a number of species which occur in the 

 Eastern Archipelago. 



Case 6. — A litter of five \'ery j^oung rats was brought to one of 

 the collecting stations in Rangoon all of which were of a light buff 

 colour and had unusualh^ large feet. Two of them were subse- 

 quently reared to maturity b}' Captain Kelsall who found them to be 

 tj'-pical examples of the Rangoon bandicoot, Gunomys varius, in 

 everything but colour. On the same day that the writer first saw 

 these rats, and at the same station, one adult specimen of exactly 

 the same colour was received, the hind feet of which were 11 mm. 

 longer than those of an equal sized specimen of the t^q^ical G. varius. 

 Information was also obtained from the official in charge that at that 

 particular station they had occasionalh' received such ' ' sandy 

 coloured bandicoots." It is clear that these interesting animals 

 were to some extent established in that part of Rangoon, and they 

 evidently breed true. Intermediate colour forms between them 

 and the common blackish gre}^ t3'pe were never met with. In Dr. 

 Hossack's collection of Calcutta rats are two specimens of the 

 smaller Gunomys bengalensis of exacth' the same curious buff 

 colour. 



Cases in which a large group of sports was met with. 



Case 7. — This is afforded b}^ the ten black mole-rats described 

 under Rng. 8 on page 76, where full details of the occurrence of 

 these interesting animals will be found. The}^ all resemble one 

 another ver}' closely indeed, and differ from the mean type of the 

 race not only in colour but also in size and skull proportions. They 

 seemed to be the only rats domiciled in two adjacent houses of a 

 certain street in Rangoon. Black specimens of G. hengalensis are 

 otherwise rare in Rangoon, and have never been recorded from 

 any other place. 



Case 8, the Ayapata race of Naini Tal. — Eight rats were caught 

 in a certain house and adjoining buildings in Naini Tal. They are 

 very like the rats found in the bazaar and other buildings of the 

 station, in all but the one respect that their tails are bicoloured. 

 This bicoloration is very variable in degree, but not by a vary- 

 ing diminution of pigmentation from the lower surface, in the man- 

 ner that our preconceived ideas would lead us to expect. The ac- 

 tual occurrence is fully described on page 40 and illustrated on 

 plates i and iv. It is difficult to believe otherwise than that these 

 eight rats are closely related as a family group. No rat with a 

 unicoloured dark tail was caught in those particular houses. In 

 all other respects they are so like the common rats of Naini Tal 

 that one is compelled to regard them as an oft'shoot from the local 

 race. It has been mentioned before that bicoloration of the tail 

 is the all-important feature in the descriptions of many species of 

 the rattus group. 



