2/8 THE ORIENTAL REGION. [CHAP. 



the smaller claws and more bushy tail, and also by the completely 

 tuberculate molars. The single species of the Burmese rat-like 

 Hapalomys differs from all other members of the sub-family 

 Murincz in possessing three longitudinal rows of tubercles on 

 the lower as well as on the upper molar teeth. The one repre- 

 sentative of the allied genus Vandeleuria ranges from India and 

 Ceylon to Yunnan. The pencil-tailed tree-mice (Chiropodomys), 

 of which there are three species, are restricted to the Burmese and 

 Malayan sub-regions; and the small red rat representing the genus 

 Pithechirus is known only from Sumatra and Java. With the 

 shrew-rat (Rhynchomys] we revert to several peculiar forms from 

 the mountains of Luzon, in the Philippines. This rodent, which 

 is about the size of an ordinary rat, has the muzzle extraordinarily 

 slender and elongated, with very feeble incisors, and it is pro- 

 bable that it lives on animal substances, possibly caterpillars. 

 The two other Philippine types form the genera Carpomys and 

 Batomys ; the former with two, and the latter with a single 

 species. They are more or less dormouse-like forms, with blunt 

 muzzles, thick woolly fur. and long and well-haired tails. Lastly, 

 the bush-rats (Golunda) have one Indian and another Ethiopian 

 representative. 



An interesting instance of how the present distribution of a 

 genus is explained by palaeontological discoveries is afforded by 

 the brush-tailed porcupines (Atherura], now represented by one 

 species from the Malayan, and a second from the West African 

 sub-region ; the connecting form being one of which fossil teeth 

 have been found in the Karnul district of Madras. From this 

 it may be inferred that the genus was probably also represented 

 in the Siwaliks. To the same family (Hystricida) belongs a 

 peculiar porcupine from Borneo, constituting the genus Trichys. 



Passing on to the ungulates, we have first to notice a peculiar 

 group of oxen forming a section of the genus Bos, which is con- 

 fined to this region, and characterised, in addition to certain features 

 of the skull and horns, by the dark colour of the males, or of 

 both males and females. Of these, the gaur (B. gaurus) inhabits 

 both India and the Malayan countries, but appears never to have 

 reached Ceylon ; while the banteng (B. sondaicus) is confined to 

 the countries on the east of the Bay of Bengal. Fossil representa- 



