GOLUNDA MELT AD A. 213 



" They are found," says Kelaarfc, " in all the higher parts of the 

 Kandian provinces. They appear to be migratory ; and are not always 

 seen in coffee estates ; when they do visit the cultivated parts, their 

 numbers are so great that in one day more than a thousand have been 

 known to be killed on one estate. In clearing forests, the nests of these 

 rats are met with under the roots of trees." 



200. G-ohmda meltada. 



GRAY, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837. Mus lanuginosus, ELLIOT, Cat. 35. 

 Mettade of Wuddurs. Mettayelka, Tel., of Yanadees. Kera ilei, Can. 



THE SOFT-FURRED FIELD-RAT. 



Descr. Above reddish-brown with a mixture of fawn, lighter beneath. 

 The fur fine, close and soft, with a few longer hairs projecting. Head 

 short ; muzzle sharp ; ears large ; tail shorter than body. 



Length of one, head and body 5^ inches ; tail 4^ ; ear T 8 oths. 



This rat has only been found in southern India. " The mettade" says 

 Mr. Elliot, "lives entirely in cultivated fields in pairs or small societies 

 of five or six, making a very slight and rude hole in the root of a bush, or 

 merely harbouring among the heaps of stones thrown together in the 

 fields, in the deserted burrow of the boh, or contenting itself with the 

 deep cracks and fissures formed in the black soil during the hot months. 

 Great numbers perish annually when these collapse and fill, up at the 

 commencement of the rains. The monsoon of 1826 having been 

 deficient in the usual fall of rain at the commencement of the season, 

 the mettades bred in such numbers as to become a perfect plague. They 

 ate up the seed as soon as sown, and continued their ravages when the 

 grain approached to maturity, climbing up the stalks of jowaree and 

 cutting off the ear to devour the grain with greater facility. I saw many 

 whole fields completely devastated, so much so as to prevent the 

 farmers from paying their rents. The ryots employed the Wuddurs to 

 destroy them, who killed them by thousands, receiving a measure of 

 grain for so many dozens, without perceptibly diminishing their numbers. 

 Their flesh is eaten by the tank-diggers. The female produces from 

 6 to 8 at a birth." 



The physiognomy of this rat is so distinct from that of the last, as is 

 also the character of the fur and the habits, that I much doubt if they 

 ought to be included in the same group. 



