212 MURING. 



199. Golunda Elliotti. 



GRAY, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837. BLYTH, Cat. p. 121. Mus hirsulus, 

 ELLIOT, Cat. 36. M. coffceus, KELAART. Gulandi, Can. Gulat yelka 

 ofWuddurs. Sora-panji-gadur, Tel., of Yanadees. 



THE BUSH-RAT. 



Descr. Above olive-brown mixed with fulvous, giving a dusky 

 fulvous tint ; beneath yellowish-tawny, or light yellowish-gray ; the 

 tail somewhat villose ; the head long, muzzle blunt, rounded, and 

 covered with rough hair, as are the face and cheeks ; ears round, hairy ; 

 whiskers long and very fine. 



Length of one, head and body 6-5% in. ; tail 4 T S o-; head 1 T ^; ear T %ths. 



This rat is found only in Southern India and Ceylon. I have only 

 met with it myself in the Carnatic, Malabar, and the Deccaii. 



" The gulandi" observes Mr. Elliot, " lives entirely above ground, in a 

 habitation constructed of grass and leaves, generally in the root of a bush, 

 at no great height from the ground ; often, indeed, touching the surface." 

 Again : " The gulandi lives entirely in the jungle, choosing its habitation 

 in a thick bush, among the thorny branches of which, or on the ground, 

 it constructs a nest of elastic stalks and fibres of dry grass, thickly inter- 

 woven. The nest is of a round or oblong shape, from 6 to 9 inches in 

 diameter, within which is a chamber about 3 or 4 inches in diameter, in 

 which it rolls itself up. Bound and through the bush are sometimes 

 observed small beaten pathways, along which the little animal seems 

 habitually to pass. Its motion is somewhat slow, and it does not 

 appear to have the same power of leaping or springing, by which the 

 rats in general avoid danger. Its food seems to be vegetable, the only 

 contents of the stomach observed being the roots of the haryalee grass. 

 Its habits are solitary (except when the female is bringing up her 

 young) and diurnal, feeding in the mornings and evenings." 



The Yanadees of Nellore catch this rat, surrounding the bush and 

 seizing it as it issues forth, which its comparatively slow actions enable 

 them to do easily. I have always found the nest on the ground, or 

 very close to it, in the midst generally of a thorny mass of Zizyphus 

 nnmmularia. 



This is the coffee-rat of Ceylon, so destructive to coffee-trees, whole 

 plantations being sometimes deprived of bud and blossoms by these rats. 



