THE GROWTH OF GROUPS 57 



obtained from the townsfolk, a small proportion of them, 

 between one and two hundred daily, were obtained in 

 a more systematic manner for the sake of sanitary re- 

 search. A number of men were employed by the muni- 

 cipality to set baited traps in special houses overnight. 

 The traps were examined next morning and those con- 

 taining rats, usually to the number of a hundred or more, 

 were brought to the collecting stations. Each trap was 

 labelled with the address of the shop or house from which 

 it had been taken. One morning I noticed that some of 

 these traps contained rats of a kind which I had not seen 

 before, either in Rangoon or in any other place ; they 

 were pure black specimens of the mole-rat Gunomys 

 bengalensis. Among those persons who had been em- 

 ployed at the collecting stations for many months and 

 who had witnessed during that time the arrival of many 

 thousands of rats from all parts of the city were some who 

 said that they had seen similar animals on rare occasions, 

 but nevertheless the occurrence was regarded by all 

 present with that interest which is aroused by an un- 

 common event. On the first occasion, five of these pecu- 

 liar rats were brought in, all had been captured in traps 

 set on the ground floor of a certain shop (No. 65, Maung 

 Khyine Street). The attention of the trappers was 

 especially directed towards that neighbourhood. Traps 

 were set in the adjoining houses, with the result that on 

 the following night one more of these peculiar rats was 

 obtained from the house No. 65, and three precisely 

 similar ones from the next house, No. 66. Again on the 

 third night one more was caught at No. 66. After this 

 no more were caught, although trapping was continued. 

 Ten rats in all were caught in those two adjoining houses. 



