316 MaAmMALIA OF INDIA. 
whiskers black, tipped with white; ears very short, semi-nude; feet and 
claws flesh-coloured ; tail naked, with a few scattered fine short hairs. 
S1zE.—Head and body, 6°6 inches ; tail, 5*2 inches. 
No. 325. NESOKIA PROVIDENS. 
The Southern India Field-Rat ( Jerdon’s No. 172). 
NaTIvE Names.—Xok, Canarese; Golatta-koku, Telegu of the 
Yanadees ; Yea-kwet (?) Burmese. 
Hasirat.—Southern India and Ceylon, probably Burmah, as one 
species is mentioned there by Blyth. 
DescripT10on.—Head short and truncated, with a deep muzzle; ears 
nearly round, semi-nude, sparsely covered with minute hairs; eyes 
moderately large, half-way between snout and ear; feet largish; claws 
short and stout; tail nearly equalling length of head and body, semi- 
nude, ringed, and with short brown bristly hairs round the margin of 
the annuli; whiskers full and long; colour of the fur—which is harsh 
and long, as in the rest of the genus, and of the usual three kinds—is a 
brown, mixed with a tinge of fawn; the under-parts are whitish, with 
a yellowish tinge; the nose, ears, and feet are dark flesh-coloured or 
brownish, and the feet are covered with short brown hair. The incisors 
are orange yellow ; the claws yellowish. 
Sir Walter Elliot states that a variety found in red soil is much redder 
in colour than that inhabiting the black land. The skull is consider- 
ably smaller, according to Dr. Anderson, than that of the Bengal 
Lesokia, NV. Blythiana, of the same age, from which it is also distin- 
guished by its more outwardly arched malar process of the maxillary ; 
by its considerably smaller teeth and long but less open anterior 
palatine foramina. The brain case is also relatively shorter and more 
globular than that of esokia Blythiana. 
S1zeE.—Head and body, about 7 inches ; tail, 63 inches. 
The habits of this rat are similar to those of the Bengal species, to 
which I will allude further on, and it has the same way of taking to 
water when pursued. 
Jerdon says that this rat is most destructive to tea-trees, biting the 
roots just below the surface, more, he believes, because they happen to 
come in the way of their burrows than to feed on them. 
Sir Walter Elliot writes: “In its habits it is solitary, fierce, living 
secluded in spacious burrows, in which it stores up large quantities of 
grain during the harvest, and when that is consumed lives upon the 
huryale grass and other roots. The female produces from eight to ten 
at a birth, which she sends out of her burrow as soon as they are able 
to provide for themselves. When irritated it utters a low grunting cry, 
like the bandicoot. The race of people known by the name of 
