1190 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXL 



are recorded in P. Z. S., 1912, page 6 : " With regard to the heredity 

 of the two normal varieties, the white-bellied form ( M. r. teotorum) was 

 found to be apparently a simple Mendelian dominant to the dark-bellied 

 form ( M. r, alexandrinus), the dark-bellied ones always breeding true 

 and the heterogeneous light-bellied ones giving a proportion of pure 

 alexandrinus." 



According to Mr. Bonhote's results there can be no " intermediates " 

 ( i.e., in the outward appearance ) between the dark-bellied and white- 

 bellied forms. Amongst these Dharwar specimens in the large majority of 

 white-bellied individuals the belly is pure white, marked off from dark back 

 colour by a well defined line, but in one or two this sudden transition 

 from dark to white is absent, and over more or less the whole of the 

 under surface the bases of the hairs are grey. 



Amongst the Chiroptera and especially amongst the RhinolophidcB it is 

 well known that colour " phases " constantly occur, and these perhaps are 

 analogous to these forms of rufescens. 



For the present I propose to list the white-bellied form merely as a 

 "variety " of rufescens, as the course at once the safest and most convenient. 



This white-bellied variety is undoubtedly the i-ufus and Jlavescens of 

 Elliot, but both names are preoccupied ; should a name be at any time 

 required, arboreus, Buchanan Hamilton, is available and most apposite. 

 Kelaart calls the corresponding animal in Ceylon " The white-bellied 

 tree Rat." 



Nos. 689, 690, 691, 692 above are representatives of the " sport " with a 

 white spot on the forehead for which Capt. Lloyd has inadvertently estab- 

 lished the name brahminicus ; all four are quite young and evidently 

 belong to the same litter. 



MiiLARDiA MELiADA, Gray. 

 The soft-furred Field-Rat. 



(Synonymy in No. 1.) 

 $ 10, 18, 40; 5 462 (in al.), 463, 464, 465, 466. Dharwar. 

 ^ 314, 339, 376, 401, 415, 416, 422, 424, 479, 480, 504 ; $ 374, 

 413, 414, 423,425, 478, 487, 491, 492, 494 (in al.), 402. 

 Gadag, Dharwar. 

 The Dharwar specimens are topotypes of Elliot's M. lanuginosus as well 

 as of Mus meltada, Gray. 



{See also Reports Nos. 1 and 3.) 

 Vernacular names. — Mettada, Mettad Illi ( Kanarese) ; Mettanyelka, 

 Mettad (Waddars). 



[ " Confined, almost, if not entirely, to black soil country, where it is 

 probably chiefly destructive to cotton crops. These rats, in favourable 

 seasons, increase in such enormous numbers as to eat down the crops of an 



