352 MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
Hapitat.—Nepal ; Sikim ; Thibet. 
DescriPTION.—Fur soft and silky. ‘ Deep brownish-black above 
with a slight rusty shade, minutely and copiously grizzled with hairs of a 
deep ferruginous tint” (Horsfied). Or a deep golden brown from 
yellow hairs being intermixed; bluish-grey beneath, with a slight 
fulvous tint ; fur leaden grey for the basal three-fourths, the terminal 
fourth being brownish or tawny with some tipped black; the hairs of 
the under-parts are dipped with dirty white ; ears project beyond the fur 
moderately, and are hairy ; feet very slender ; tail thinly clad with short 
brown hair. The female has six mamme. 
S1zE.—Head and body, about 4? inches; tail, r} inch. Horsfield 
gives 5 inches for head and body. 
According to Jerdon this vole has only been procured in Sikim near 
Darjeeling, at heights varying from 7000 to 15,000 feet; but I believe 
the area it inhabits to be much larger. Hodgson found his specimens 
at Darjeeling, and on one occasion got a nest in a hollow tree in the 
forest ; it was saucer-shaped, of soft grass without any lining, and con- 
tained a male, female, and two young. ‘The latter were “‘2} inches 
long, hairy above, nude below, and blind; the ears also closed.” 
Jerdon writes: ‘Mr. Atkinson found it under fallen trees and stones 
on the top of Tonglo, near Darjeeling, 10,000 feet, whence also I had a 
specimen brought me.” 
The next species is one described and figured by Professor Milne- 
Edwards, and from Thibet he has two illustrations of it—one of an 
entire blackish-brown, the other darker above, but with the black 
belly. 2 
No. 395. ARVICOLA MELANOGASTER. 
Hapirat.—Moupin in Tibet. 
DEscriPTION.— It is characterised by the colour of the lower parts, 
which are a blackish-grey. The upper parts are sometimes as black as 
a mole, sometimes grizzled with brown” (‘ Mammiferes,’ p. 284). The 
brown specimen with the dark belly is evidently a rarity. 
FAMILY SPALACID. 
The members of this family are characterised by very large incisors ; 
some have premolars, as in Bathyergus and two other genera, but not 
in the Spalacine, of which our bamboo-rat (A/zzomys) is the represen- 
tative in India. ‘The grinding teeth are rooted, not tuberculate, but 
with re-entering enamel folds ; infra-orbital opening moderate or small, 
