200 MURINE. 



some of tliese varieties may be hybrids, as it has been lately shown* that, 

 in London, M. decumanus, M. rattus, and M. alexandrinus interbreed 

 and commingle, yielding fertile hybrids of all degrees of intermediateness. 



This rat is found over great part of India. Mr. W. Elliot observed it 

 at Dharwar, frequenting stables and out-houses only, but abundant 

 there. It is common at Calcutta, but varies more there than in Southern 

 India. I have met with it in various localities, at Madras, at Nellore, on 

 trees generally, and on the Malabar coast ; but most abundantly at 

 Secunderabad in the ])eccan, frequenting the beams and rafters of 

 houses, verandahs, &c. 



It is perhaps Hodgson's M. hrunneusculus, which, he says, '* closely 

 resembles hrunneus (vel 7iemoralis), but considerably smaller; rusty- 

 brown above, rusty below, extremities pale." 



Buchanan Hamilton states that at Calcutta it frequents cocoa-nut 

 trees and bamboos, making a nest with the branches, and bringing 

 forth five or six young in August and September. They eat grain, 

 which they collect in their nest, also young cocoa-nuts. They enter 

 houses at night, but do not live there. 



181. Mus niveiventer. 



Hodgson, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1845. — Blyth, Memoir. 

 The White-bellied House-rat. 



Descr. — Above blackish-brown, shaded with rufoiis ; below entirely 

 white, tail and all. 



Length of one, head and body 5^ inches ; tail 6 : another G inches 

 head and body ; tail 7 ; hind- foot nearly 1|. A female 7 inches long ; 

 tail r^. 



This rat is stated by Hodgson to be a house-rat in Nepal, but not very 

 common. It is the rat very generally found in most hill stations, and 

 I found it very common at Darjeeling. Blyth also received it from 

 Mussoorie, from Colonel Tytler, and noticed it as " a well-marked 

 species, rather larger than as originally described." In his Catalogue 

 he gives it doubtfully as a variety of M. rufescens. I have occasionally 

 obtained it in various other localities. 



Hodgson states it to have the proportions and character of his rattoides, 

 but to be less, with a shorter tail, and the long piles of the pelage rarer. 



* Proc. Liuji. Soc. 1862. 



