290 W. T. Blanford— 0;^ tie Metdd Bat. [JSTo. 3, 



lanuginosus, wliicli, as its author himself pointed out to me, is not very 

 ajDpropriate, the fur being very soft but not woolly. Man}'- naturalists in 

 Germany refuse to employ " barbaric" terms, but until the question of 

 their use or disuse can be settled by general consent, it does not apjDear 

 advisable to depart from established custom. If the views above urged 

 be adopted, the following will be the synonymy of the present species. 



MlJS METTADA. 



Golimda meltada, Gray, Charlesworth's Mag. Nat, Hist., I, p. 586, 

 (1837). 



Mus mettade, Elliot, Mad. Jour. Lit. Sci., X, p. 208, (1839). 



3Ius lanuginosus, Elliot, ib. p. 212, (1839). 



Golunda ineUada, Gray, Cat. Mam. Brit. Mus., p. 113, (1843). 



' M. meltada, Gray,' Wagner, Schreber's Saugth., Suppl. Pt. 3, p. 421, 

 (1843). 



' Golunda miltada, Gray,' Blyth, J. A. S. B. XXXII, p. 352, (1863). 



* Mus meltada, Elliot,' Eitzinger, Sitz. Kais. Acad. Wien., LVI, 1, p. 

 72, (1867). 



Golunda meltada, Jerdon, Mammals of India, p. 213, (1867). 



Metdd or Mettdngandu of Wadari. 



N. JB. — Golwida newera, Kelaart, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 2, VIII, 

 p. 339, (1851) was by Kelaart, on the authority of Blyth, (Prod. Faun. Zeyl. 

 p. 67,) considered the same as the Metad, although it differs in having 

 grooved incisors, and in colour. By Blyth it was subsequently considered 

 identical with G. Ellioti, Cat. Mam. Mus. As. Soc, p. 121. 



lilts mettada has not hitherto, so far as I know, been recorded from 

 any precise locality, exce2^t the Western Deccan ; it probably, however, is 

 found in others parts of the Madras Presidency. Jerdon says it has only 

 been found in Southern India. 



Description taken from 5 dried skins and 5 specimens in spirit. — 

 Colour above brown with a slight rufous tinge, below white, the two 

 colours not sharply divided. Fur soft, glossy and rather dense, consisting 

 of fine hairs which beneath the microscope are found to be slightly flat- 

 tened and grooved. The hairs of the ujDper parts are very dark leaden 

 grey, except near the ends, where they are light brown ; black tipped 

 hairs, a little longer than the rest, being mixed as usual with the fur on the 

 back and face, but becoming fewer in number and gradually disa|)pearing 

 on the sides. On the breast and abdomen the fur is lighter grey at the 

 base, white at the ends. The length of the ordinary hairs in the middle 

 of the back is rather less than half an inch, (about 0-42,) the longer hairs 



