ON A COLLECTION OF RATS AND SHREWS FROM 
THE DUTCH EAST INDIAN ISLANDS 
by 
OLDFIELD THOMAS, 
British Museum. 
lowe to the kindness of Dr. K. W. DAMMERMAN the opportunity 
_ of examining a large number of Rats and Shrews which have been accu- 
mulated in the Zoological Museum at Buitenzorg. These have mostly been 
obtained by various Dutch officials in connection with the study of plague, 
and as a consequence they are usually the species which occur in and 
around the various ports and principal towns, these being in the case of 
the rats generally members of the Rattus rattus group and may for the 
present be set aside under the provisional name of Rattus neglectus, JENT. 
There are also a number referable to the Rattus concolor group, of which 
the archipelago representatives have generally been called R. ephippium, JENT. 
And there are, of course, some Mus musculus. Of none of these would a 
list be worth publication. 
But among the others there are many of interest, and a list of them 
with localities and notes, may be of value to mammalogists. 
The majority of the new species have already been described in the 
Annals and Magazine of Natural History for March, 1921. 
1. Lenomys meyeri, JENT. 
d 1.2. Amoerang, N. Celebes. 
2. Rattus xanthurus, GRAY. 
d 3. Menado. 
d 4.5.6. Amoerang. 
3. Rattus dominator, THOS. 
® 7. Menado, leg. MOHARI. 
4. Rattus marmosurus, THOS. 
& 8. Toradjalanden, Mamasa, Celebes. 
The study of the additional material of this interesting group of rats 
with white-ended tails has resulted in the description of three new species, 
of which Rattus dominator is the finest. The original specimens were 
collected by Dr. CHARLES HOSE in 1895, and he gives me the following 
note on their place of capture: 
“I found a large rock basin on the top of the mountain in which, 
water had collected to the depth of three or four feet and decided to 
