SOME RATS AND MICE OF THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO 
by 
C. BODEN KLOSS, F. Z. S. 
Kuala Lumpur. 
I: Bandicoot-rats. 
I have been entrusted by Dr. K. W. DAMMERMAN, Director of the 
Zoological Museum at Buitenzorg, with a collection of Bandicoot-rats (Dutch: 
borstelrat, Malay: wirok) from Netherlands India for determination. Two 
species are represented: a large one — the wellknown Bandicota setifera, and 
a smaller which is new and has not hitherto been recorded from the Mal- 
aysian Islands. Unfortunately the specimens are unaccompanied by measure- 
ments and have been either mounted or skinned from alcohol so that 
the colours must be accepted with a little reserve. 
Bandicota setifera (Plate Il). 
Mus setifer HORSFIELD, Zoological Researches in Java 1824, coloured 
plate and description. (Java); JENTINK, Cat. Mus. d’Hist. Nat. Pays-Bas, IX, 
1887, pp. 211, 328 (Java, Sumatra), id. op. cit. XII, 1888, p. 64 (Java). 
Nesocia setifer TJEENK WILLINCK, Nat. Tijdschr. Ned. Ind. LXV, 1905, p. 
262 (Java, Sumatra). f 
Nesokia setifer SCHNEIDER, Zool. Jahrb. Jena, XXIII, 1905, p. 146, 
(Sumatra). 
Bandicota setifera WROUGHTON, Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. XVIII, 
1908, p. 750 (Java). 
Nesocia (Bandicota) setifera KONINGSBERGER, Java, Zoöl. en Biol. 
Buitenzorg 1915, p. 416 (Java). 
There are many examples of this species from various parts of Java 
and it is evidently common in suitable localities. 
According to HORSFIELD itis found at the confines of forests and woods 
and rarely approaches villages and dwellings; KONINGSBERGER writes of it 
as a member of the fauna of grass-lands, but says it seems to be in 
transition from a jungle-rat to a country-rat, as among the numerous rats 
collected in connection with plague in East-Java there were some of this 
species caught in the neighbourhood of native villages and even in houses. 
The general upper colour of adults, due to the presence of numerous 
long shining bristles, is dark brown (perhaps nearest to Ridgway’s „light 
seal brown’ but darker). On the sides, where the long hairs are few, the 
