678 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIII ^ 



No. v.— AN UNIDENTIFIED ANIMAL IN SOUTH MALABAR. 



Can any Member throw any light on the following extract from a paper- 

 by Blyth (J. A. S. B. XXVIII, p. 286, 1859 ) ? 



" Some time ago, Mr. Baker asserted in a communication to a sporting 

 periodical his belief that a real Mole existed in his neighbourhood. 

 {Footnote. — " Going through the hills, I often come upon a small black 

 velvet-coated creature dead, with the head bitten off. The paws are 

 precisely like those of the English Mole, with a similar tail ; the whole a 

 finger's length and about an inch thick. It would be curious to know what 

 kills this animal and whether it be a true Mole, as I think it.") 



He now writes : — "I have since had three specimens of the Mole brought 

 to me, but all too far gone for preservation ; they were perfectly black with 

 white belly. Moles they certainly were." 



It is unfortunate that the skulls were not preserved, or even the entire 

 skeletons in spirit ; but I trust ere long to receive examples from Mr. 

 Baker, as a Talpa from S. India would be a very unexpected discovery ; 

 though, as stated in the sequel, we possess the T. hucura, nobis, from the 

 hilly region bordering on the valley of the Sitang river in British Burma,, 

 where co-existing with a Tupaia and a ILylomys. {Footnote. — In a subse- 

 quent letter, Mr. Baker remarks : " With the assistance of the hill- 

 people we contrived all kinds of springes, trap-falls, &c., in order to catch, 

 the smaller animals ; but we could not manage a common Mole-catcher's 

 trap, and I was fairly beaten by a digger whose runs reminded me of 

 those of the Mole at home. He seemed to beat us by his mining, perhaps, 

 however by the numerous ramifications of his burrow.") 



Blyth's correspondent was the Rev. H. Baker, Junr., of Mundakyum, 

 Alipi, Southern Malabar. 



The 'burrows' in Mr. Baker's second communication were no doubt 

 those of Gunomys kok, the common Madras Mole-rat, but the mysterious. 

 animal he mentions in such detail is still unknown. 



R. C. WROUGHTON. 



British Museum (Natural History), 

 London, S.W, November, 1914, 



No. VI.— THE WHITE-BROWED BUSH ROBIN {lANTHIA INDICA) 

 IN THE N. W. HIMALAYAS— A CORRECTION. 



In Volume xxii, page 795 of the Journal, the late Mr. P. T. L. Dodsworth 

 recorded the occurrence of lantliia indica in the N. W. Himalayas 

 and quoted me as confirming his identification. Some time afterwards 

 Mr. B. B. Osmaston wrote to me asking if I was quite sure of the identifi- 

 cation as he himself had once recorded a specimen,, which he afterwards 

 discovered to be Larvivora hrunnea ! After some delay I learnt that the 

 specimen was in Mr. A. Jones's collection and he, at my request, forwarded the 

 specimen. On re-examination I find the skin is, as Mr. Osmaston suspected, 

 Larvivora brunnea, and I therefore take this opportunity of correcting the 

 record. 



Mr. A. Jones has kindly presented the specimen to the Society. 



N. B. KINNEAR. 



Bombay Natural History Society's Museum, 

 Isi December 1914, 



