MAMMAL SURVEY 01' INDIA. 299 



material from Lower Bengal to guide us. I have compared skulls of the 

 present series with those representing bengalensis, in the Natural History 

 Museum and I come to the conclusion, as I did some years ago, (Journ. 

 B. N. H. Soc, Vol. XVIII, p. 743, 1908,) that these two species are quite 

 distinct. 



(58) GoLUNDA ELLiOTi, Gray, 

 The Indian Bush Rat. 

 (Synonymy in No. 1.) 



1 5 , Bageswar, 3,200'; 1 c? , 1 ? , Sitabani, 2,000'; 1 c? , Naini 

 Tal, 7,000' ; 4 d d , 4 5 $ , Dela Eamnagar, 1,500' ; 1 $ , 

 Jerna Ramnagar, 1,500'. 

 This presumably should be the Mus myothrix of Gray ; that name was 

 based on a mutilated flat skin contributed by Hodgson ; its colouring is 

 much brighter than anything in this series. 

 "Decidedly rare in Kumaon." — C.A.O. 



{See also Reports Nos, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 11.) 



(59) MiCROTUS (Alticola) roylei, Gray. 

 Roi/Ws Vole. 



1842. Arvicola roylei. Gray, A. M. N. H. X., p. 265. 



1891. Micvotus roylei, Blanford, Mammalia No. 300. 



16 c? c? , 16 ? $ , Phurkia, 10,700' ; 1 c? , 2 $ ? , Martoli. _ 



Gray in describing the species gave the type locality as " India (Cash- 

 mere) ; " his Indian localities however are very often erroneous. A good 

 deal of collecting has been done in recent years in Kashmir, notably by 

 Col. Ward, no specimen representing roylei has been found. The 

 common vole of Kashmir is M. montosa, True {imitator, Bonhote). Miss 

 Ryley, who had carefully compared the two species, has left a note on 

 record here to the effect that " M. roylei is slightly smaller, has a shorter 

 tail, and has different colouration." Dr. Royle, who was Superintendent 

 of the Botanical Gardens at Saharanpur, and after whom the species was 

 named, published a book entitled "Illustrations of the Botany and other 

 branches of the Natural History of the Himalaya Mountains and of the 

 Flora of Cashmere." (1839.) Though he gave his chief attention to 

 Botany, he also made a collection of Mammals. Mr. Ogilvy, in an appen- 

 dix to the above book entitled "Memoir on the Mammalogy of the 

 Himalaya, " wrote a note on the distribution of the Mammals of the 

 Himalayas, based chiefly on this Collection. He does not mention a 

 Microtus by name, but refers to an extremely short tailed rat occurring in 

 the higher' Ranges of Kumaon, which it seems to me can be no other than 

 our present species, and Gray's type specimen most probably was from the 

 same locality. The type was originally in spirits, and was skinned out 

 comparatively recently, it is now in very poor condition, but measurements 

 and skull characters correspond very fairly with our present series. 



" Trapped on the same ground as Apodemus ; both were frequently taken 

 under the same small rock. In Kashmir I observed that Microtus and 

 Apodemus were invariably found on the same ground." — C A. C. 



(60) Hystrix leucura, Sykes. 



The Indian Porcupine. 



(Synonymy in No. 1.) 



1 2 , Jerna Ramnagar, 1,500'. 

 1 d , 2 $ 2 , Philibhit, Rohilkhand, 800'. 

 This, no doubt, is Hodgson's nepalensis (the name was overlooked and 



