194 MURING. 



showed great fight. It is found in all towns and large villages in the 

 south, frequenting granaries and stack-yards, and is very destructive to 

 the stores of grain, on which it chiefly feeds. It burrows under walla, 

 and often injures the foundations of houses. Besides grain, it will feed 

 on fruit and various other vegetable matter, and even at times, it is 

 said, animal food. At Newera-ellia, in Ceylon, it is said to be very 

 destructive to potatoes, peas, &c. It does not occur, to my knowledge, 

 in the Neelgherries, a similar climate. Kelaart says that it occasionally 

 attacks poultry also. When assailed it grunts like a pig ; hence its 

 Telugu name. It is eaten by some classes of natives. Hodgson, in his 

 first account of M. Tiemorivagus, stated that it avoids houses, and dwells 

 in burrows in fields and small woods. He subsequently stated that it 

 was a house-rat, and most likely identical with the bandicoot. 



Mus andamanensis, Blyth, is according to that gentleman, in an anno- 

 tated copy of his Memoir sent to me, the M. seti/er apud Cantor, and 

 inhabits the Andaman Islands, probably the Nicobars (in which case 

 M. nicobaricus, Scherzer), and the Malayan peninsula. 



In Blyth's MS. notes, above alluded to, he gives " a small pale speci- 

 men (of M. andamanensis) in the British Museum, marked M. kok, from 

 India 1 Perhaps an allied species." Is it possible that this is Hodgson's 

 M. rattoides, instead of that being referred to M. rattus, which we know 

 to be rare, except near the coast 1 



175. Mus rattus. 



LINNAEUS. BLYTH, Cat. p. 113. ELLIOT, Cat. 34. M. rattoides, 



HODGSON. 



THE BLACK RAT. 



Descr. Grayish-black above, dark-ashy beneath ; tail longer than the 

 body ; long piles numerous, somewhat flattened. 



Length of one, head and body 7 J inches ; tail 8. 



The muzzle is sharper than that of the brown rat, the ears more oval, 

 and it is lighter in its make, and with much longer hair. 



Hodgson describes his M. rattoides as " above dusky or blackish-brown, 

 below dusky-hoary. Limbs dark ; fingers pale ; tail longer than head and 

 body ; long piles sufficiently numerous. Length, snout to vent 7| inches ; 

 tail 8J ; ears |ths ; palm yfths ; sole l-. Gray at one time referred 

 Hodgson's species to M. indicus, Geoffroy, which he apparently consi- 



