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No- 45- Mus bandicota- 



JERDOK, No. 174, PAGE 193 ; THE BANDICOOT RAT. 

 The dimensions given by Jerdon, viz., " length, head and body, 

 " fifteen inches, tail thirteen, and weight, three Ibs. ;" hardly give a 

 sufficient idea of the formidable appearance of this gigantic rat, 

 which, had it one-half the activity and courage of our English pest, 

 should be able to show good fight against an ordinary terrier. The 

 bandicoot is, however, a sluggish and cowardly animal, and, 

 although from its size and weight it takes a good of worrying 

 before it dies, it seldom does much in self-defence, and any mode- 

 rately good dog can kill it with ease. Jerdon, while mentioning 

 that bandicoots are exceedingly numerous in Fort Saint George at 

 Madras, might also have said in proof of the mischief they do, that 

 Government has authorized a reward of one anna, three half pence^ 

 for each bandicoot killed within the walls of that fort : at any rate, 

 if this order is not still in force, it is to be found at page 199 of the 

 Military Pay and Audit Regulations of the Madras Presidency, pub- 

 lished in 1842. Jerdon is right in saying that "when assailed it 

 " grunts like a pig hence its Teloogoo name pandi koku" i. e., the 

 " pig-rat, whence the word bandicoot is derived." 



I do not think I ever displayed more agility in my life than when, 

 in the hot blood of Ensignhood and being minus nether raiment of 

 any kind, I once assaulted a huge bandicoot which I had found in my 

 bath-room and prevented from leaving it. My enemy with savage 

 grunts charged at my naked legs, and as I had not a weapon at hand 

 wherewith to slay him and was ashamed to let him go ; my only 

 chance of freedom from danger was in jumping as high and as far 

 as I could. I have known bandicoots to burrow in corn stacks as 

 do our English rats : they are also most destructive to the bales of 

 pressed forage often brought over with Australian horses imported 

 into India. The bandicoots of Rangoon struck me as being much 

 smaller and darker than the Indian animal ; could they have been 

 the last variety " Mus rattus" the black rat, No. 175 of Jerdon, 

 whose book I had not then to refer to ? 



While running about at night, bandicoots grunt in the hog-like 

 manner referred to by Jerdon at page 194, and attention is often 

 ttracted to them from this habit. 



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