288 W. T. Blanford— 0/i tJie Metdd Eat. [No. 3, 



considers that it should be referred to the " Alpine-Himalayan," and 

 doubts the fact of its occurrence anywhere on the Tibetan plateau. I am 

 not in a position to say definitely, in the face of such authority, that the 

 species does occur in the latter region, but I am rather inclined to think 

 that it must, since I have been shewn skins of this species in Ladak, said 

 to have been procured there ; moreover the Ladakis have a distinct name 

 for the animal, viz., Ldtod, — which is not usual in the case of animals 

 which do not occur in the country. Again Jerdon in his " Mammals of 

 India," in treating of this species, says (taking the statement for what it 

 is worth) that it extends into Central Asia as far as Siberia. 



In separating so markedly the " Tibetan" from the " Himalayan" 

 fauna, it must be borne in mind that there is evidence of the two having 

 for a long period of time had means of communication with each other ; 

 otherwise we are unable to exj^lain the very close relationship which un- 

 doubtedly exists between Oris Vignii of the Tibetan plateau, and Ovis 

 cycloceros of the hills of the Panjab. It is probable that the latter must 

 be regarded as originally a wanderer from the Tibetan fauna, which has 

 become modified into a distinct sjoecies, now confined to the outer Hima- 

 layan district. 



X. — On tlie Metdd Bat (Golunda meltada. Gray) with a note on Golunda 



Ellioti.— ^7/ W. T. BLAKroED, F. E. S., &c. 



(Received June 21st ;— Read July 4tli, 1877.) 



(With Plate I.) 



In a paper published in the Journal for last year, Vol. XLV, Pt. 2, 



p. 165, I gave an account of the Golandi rat (Golunda Ellioti). The 



great diflSculty which I found in recognizing this rat from the published 



descriptions, and the identification of the genera Golunda and Pelomys 



have induced me to study some of the other peculiar murine forms found 



in India. The affinities of these species cannot be clearly made out without 



fuller descriptions of their structural peculiarities than have hitherto been 



available, and the skulls and teeth especially need comparison with those 



of other Murida. We are indebted to Dr. Peters for full accounts of the 



structure of two Indian rodent genera NesoJcia'^ ( = ^palacomys) and 



l^latacantliomys^ ; but of others, such as Golunda, Leggada and Vandeleuria 



so little has hitherto been known that they are not even mentioned in Mr. 



Alston's recent classification of the Glires.% 



* Spalacomys incUcus ( = NesoJcia HardivicJcei of Jerdon, and perhaps of Gray) 

 Abhandl. Kon. Akad. der. Wiss. Berlin, 1860, p. 139, PL II, fig-. 1. 

 t P. Z. S. 1865, p. 397, PI. 20. 

 X p. Z. S. 1876, p. 61. 



