358 | MAMMALIA OF INDIA. 
GENUS ALACTAGA. 
“Hind feet with five digits, of which the first and fifth do not reach 
the ground ; tail cylindrical, tufted ; skull with the occipital region less 
broad, and the auditory bullz smaller; infra-orbital opening with no 
separate canal for the nerve ; incisors plain. One very small premolar 
present above only.” —<A/dston, 
No. 401. ALACTAGA INDICA. 
NATIVE NaMe.—<Xhanee, Afghan. 
Hasitat.—Afghanistan ; Eastern Persia. 
DESCRIPTION.—Fawn colour above; the hair with black tips and 
ashy grey at the base ; under-parts white ; upper parts of thigh white ; 
a black spot behind and inside the thigh just below the white ; remainder 
of the outside and lower part of the inside of the thighs brown ; a white 
line running down the front, and extending over the upper portion of 
the tarsi and feet; proximal portion of tarsus brown at the sides. 
(See ‘ Blanford’s Eastern Persia,’ vol. ii. p. 77.) The tail is brown 
with a white tip; ears thinly clad with brown hairs; head brown above, 
whitish around the eyes ; whiskers black. 
SizE.—Head and body, 33 inches ; tail, 7 inches. 
This animal is unfortunately named, as it is not Indian at all; equally 
unfortunate, as Mr. Blanford has shown, is Blyth’s name Lactrianus, 
for it does not inhabit that tract, so the original title stands. Hutton, 
in his ‘Rough Notes on the Zoology of Candahar’ (‘J. A. S. B.’ xv. 
p- 137), writes of it as follows: ‘“ This beautiful little animal is abundant 
over all the stony plains throughout the country, burrowing deeply, and 
when unearthed bounding away with most surprising agility after the 
manner of the kangaroo-rat. It is easily tamed, and lives happily 
enough in confinement if furnished with plenty of room to leap about. 
It sleeps all day, and so soundly that it may be taken from its cage and 
examined without awaking it; or at most it will half open one eye ina 
drowsy manner for an instant, and immediately close it again in sleep. 
It retires to its burrows about the end of October, and remains dormant 
till the following April, when it throws off its lethargy and again comes 
forth.” There is a good engraving of this animal in Cassel’s new 
Natural History. 
We have now closed our account of the Myomorpha or Mouse-like 
Rodents, and will proceed to the next Section, HysTRICOMORPHA, OF | 
Porcupine-like Rodents. 
