36 ZOOLOGY OF INDIA. 



illustrate ; but the three above described will probably suffice 

 to represent the habits and. history of the whole. 



Passing over the great and eccentric order of marsupial 

 or pouched animals, which, though not entirely unknown 

 to the great Asiatic division of our globe, are yet strangers 

 to Hindostan and the other countries of our present mquiry, 

 we proceed to the order Rodentia or Glires, which includes 

 what are designated gnawers, — such as rats and mice, and 

 many others too numerous to mention. Of this order the 

 squirrel tribe (genus Sciurws) are among the most beautiful 

 and most to be admired, and of these the Malabar species 

 (Sc. maximus) is the largest known,— measuring fifteen or 

 sixteen inches from the muzzle to the root of the tail, which 

 is itself nearly a foot and a half long. The upper parts 

 and outsides of the limbs are of a bright chocolate-brown, 

 which changes suddenly on the imder parts, fore-arms, 

 and inner sides of the limbs, into a pale yellowish brown. 

 The back and shoulders are sometimes of a deep black. The 

 ears are short and covered with tufted hair, the whiskers 

 are long and black. The tail is broad and branching from 

 the centre to the siGes, and its colours are bright chocolate- 

 Lrown at the base, black in the intermediate portion, and 

 chestnut at the extremity. This beautiful species was ob- 

 served and figured by Sonnerat. It is native to the coasts 

 of Malabar. 



Of the rat tribe we shall here mention only a single ex- 

 ample of enormous size. It is the Malabar-rat of Dr. Shaw, 

 and the Mus giganteus of General Hardwicke.* The nose 

 is rounded, the under jaw much shorter than the upper, the 

 cutting-teeth broad, incurved, compressed, the lower ones 

 measuring eight-tenths of an inch, and the upper four- 

 tenths in length. The body is thick, and greatly arched ; 

 the upper part is most hairy and black, the lower inclines 

 to gray. The legs and toes are black, and the tail is thinly 

 covered with hair, and measures two and a half inches in 

 circumference at the root. The specimen above described 

 was a female, and weighed two pounds eleven ounces and a 

 half. The male weighs above three pounds, and measures, 

 including the tail, which is above a foot long, nearly thirty 



* In Linn. Trans., vol. vii. p. 306. 



