i2 4 THE INDIAN FAUNA 



the Himalaya to Cape Comorin, and from lower Sind to Cachar, and perhaps as far 

 as Assam, while it also occurs in the valley of Kashmir and Ceylon, and is prob- 

 ably spread over Burma as far as the Mergui Archipelago. It is generally found 

 on damp, swampy ground, but also ranges to the top of the Nilgiri and other hills. 

 The coarse hair is dark brown mixed with yellow above, and grey or yellowish 

 below. The head and body measure from 6 to 9 inches in length, and the tail 

 from 5 to 7 inches. The kok, which lives in cultivated ground, gardens, or pastures, 

 betrays its presence by the heaps of earth in front of its holes. Its galleries opening 

 into the banks of ditches and tanks near rice-fields are long and irregular, often 

 branched, sometimes circular, and lead to a principal chamber, in which the animal 

 stores up grain, often amounting to a pound in weight. The burrows sometimes 

 occupy an area with a diameter of 15 to 20 yards, each being apparently 

 inhabited by only a single rat. The food consists principally of grass and roots. 

 The kok is a spiteful animal, which when irritated bristles up its long spines and 

 utters a grunting sound. It takes readily to the water, in which it swims well ; 

 generally it has from eight to ten, but sometimes fourteen, young at a time ; and it 

 grows so tame in captivity that it will answer when called by name. 



The Indian bush -rat (Golunda ellioti), which inhabits the greater 



n. ]C ,|, Pat 



part of India and Ceylon, is a rodent with coarse hair, and a length of 



4J inches to the root of the tail, the latter measuring about 4 inches more. In 



colour it is yellowish brown, with black and grey speckling above, and brownish 



white or grey below. This rat lives only in forest, generally in a dense thorn-bush ; 



its round or oblong nest of twisted grass and rootlets being placed on the ground 



among stones and twigs. This nest has a diameter of 8 to 10 inches, and its cup is 



about 4 inches across. A solitary animal, the bush-rat is largely diurnal, feeding 



in the morning and evening, and subsisting principally on the roots of the grass 



known as Gynodon dactylon. It is very injurious to coffee-plantations in Ceylon 



owing to its eating the buds and blossoms. The Indian bush-rat is rather slow in 



its movements, and cannot leap so well as other mice; at times it apparently 



undertakes regular migrations. 



Although voles are practically absent from the Indian area, the 

 Indian GerbiL ° r J 



pretty little gerbils have a representative in the Indian gerbil rat 



(Gerbillus indicus), which is distributed over India and Ceylon as far east as the 



Bay of Bengal, and as far west as Baluchistan. In colour this species is sandy or 



fawn above and white below. To the root of the tail its length is from 5 to 



7 inches, the tail measuring from 6 to 8 inches more. Leading an exclusively 



nocturnal life, and never seen outside its hole by day, this gerbil frequents sandy 



and uncultivated ground, although it often appears on the edges of cultivated fields. 



Its burrows, which have numerous passages and large chambers of 6 to 12 inches 



in diameter, it lines with dry grass. Its food includes roots, grass, seeds, 



and corn, and it sometimes does great damage to cornfields. In 1878-79, for 



instance, it destroyed in the Dekkan an area of several thousands of square miles 



planted with sorghum, by biting off the stems, and eating or storing away the grain. 



This gerbil is very prolific, and has eight to twelve or more young at a time. It can 



jump 4 or 5 yards in one leap, and often escapes from dogs by jumping right ovei 



their backs. 



