424 MUBIDJ:. 



the upper surface. Tail three quarters the length of the head 

 and body or more. Mammae 7 to 9 pairs. Feet hairy above. 

 Skull longer and muzzle narrower than in N. hardwickei ; anterior 

 palatine foramina longer than the crowns of all the upper molar 

 teeth. Incisors and molars narrower. 



Colour dark brown above, slightly grizzled with yellowish ; below 

 hoary grey to isabelline. Basal fur dark ashy or blackish through- 

 out ; tips of dorsal hairs brownish yellow or isabelline, and of the 

 longer piles black. 



Dimensions. Head and body 6 to 9 inches, tail 5-5 to 7'25, ear 

 about 0-75, hind foot T2 to 1-45. A large Calcutta male measured 

 8-2, 0-45, 0-83, and 1-3. Basal length of skull 1-7, zygomatic 

 breadth M. 



Distribution. The greater part of the Indian Peninsula from the 

 base of the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, and from Lower Sind to 

 Cachar and I believe Assam ; more common in damp alluvial tracts, 

 but ascending to the tops of the Nilgiris and other hills. Found 

 also in Ceylon and in the valley of Kashmir, and apparently 

 throughout Burma to the Mergui Archipelago. 



Varieties. The form from Southern India, N. IcoTc v. providens, 

 is smaller, usually paler in colour, and the anterior palatine 

 foramina are very narrow. The Bengal variety is larger, and the 

 Burmese form is larger still. 



Habits. An excellent account has been given by Elliot, but is 

 too long for extraction. Several details have also been supplied 

 by Jerdon and Anderson. 



Nesocia benyalensis lives in cultivated plains, gardens, and 

 pastures, where its presence may be recognized by the piles of 

 earth, resembling large mole-hills, at each opening of its burrow. 

 Often the openings are in the banks of ditches and tanks or the 

 bunds of rice-fields. The burrows, as in the case of N. hardivickei, 

 are extensive and of irregular form, often branching, sometimes 

 circular, and leading to a central chamber or nest, in which much 

 grain is occasionally stored by the rat, a pound being sometimes 

 found in a burrow. Jerdon observed burrows occupying an area 

 15 to 20 yards in diameter. Elliot found only one occupant to 

 each burrow. The food consists chiefly of grass and other roots, 

 and of grain where that is procurable. 



This mole-rat is somewhat fierce, and when irritated it erects 

 its long piles and utters a grunting sound. It takes freely to 

 water and swims well. From 8 to 10 young are said to be usually 

 produced at each birth, but 14 have been observed by Sterndale in 

 an individual kept by him, and which he succeeded in taming per- 

 fectly, so as to come when called by her name. 



Elliot says that the Wadaris or tank-diggers of the Deccan, who 

 eat all rats, capture this species in large numbers for food, and in 

 some favourable localities are able, at particular seasons, to subsist 

 on its hoards of grain. 



