96 THE GROWTH OF GROUPS 



rats which had been seen occasionally at one of the 

 collecting stations. They were said to be very large and 

 yellowish in colour. A brood of five such animals had 

 been brought in recently by a rat catcher. As it was 

 the custom at the collecting stations to reject white rats 

 and other fancy kinds which might have been bred for 

 the sake of the reward, these five had not been purchased 

 for destruction, although their captor declared that they 

 had been found wild in the usual manner. The man, who 

 was well known at the station, was questioned as to their 

 disposal. Fortunately two of them were still in his 

 possession. Being reared artificially from an early age 

 they were quite tame : thus they came into my hands. 

 They were quite young, being as was subsequently ascer- 

 tained less than a half their mature size. At first sight 

 it was difficult to know what they were. They evidently 

 belonged to one of the larger species, for their heads were 

 already as large as that of a mature rattus. The tail was 

 shorter than the head and body, so evidently they were 

 of the species Mus decumanus or one of the species of 

 Gunomys, since these were the only short-tailed kinds 

 known in Rangoon. Both showed two striking pecu- 

 liarities, namely yellowish coloured fur and large hind 

 feet. The fur covering the whole body was much the 

 colour of tow. The hind feet were of remarkable size, 

 it was this fact that made their relationship so doubtful. 

 The feet of many mammals are proportionately larger 

 in adolescence than in maturity, but although the couple 

 were evidently immature their feet were already as large 

 as those of any species of rodent known in Rangoon. 



A few days later, a large yellowish rat was brought in 

 dead to that collecting station at which the other two had 



