21G J. Anderson — On the Suh-Ocnus Xesokia. [No. 4, 



thentic specimens of the species described by Elliot in the Madras Journal 

 of Literature and Science.* There can therefore be no doubt of the iden- 

 tity of Mus hole with Mus providens, and that the types, as stated in the 

 * List of Mammalia,' on the authority of Elliot, were from cultivated 

 plains in the Madras Presidency, and from Madras itself. The figure of 

 Arvicola indica, fortunately bearing the date, 1st May 1829, renders it 

 impossible that any of Elliot's specimens could have contributed the type 

 of that species, and, moreover, in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 of 1835, it is stated that it was figured from General Hardwicke's draw- 

 ings. 



In the * List of Mammalia,' there is no specimen under M. kbh^ of 

 which Arvicola indica was regarded by Dr. Gray as a synonym, that could 

 have formed the type of the latter, as all the specimens of M. koh that 

 have been mentioned were, with one exception, received from Sir W. Elliot. 

 The exception is described as (e) "a small rat with a very long tail : India : 

 from Dr. Smut's Collection." A very long tail would seem to be sufficient 

 evidence that this was neither M. Jcoh nor Arvicola indica. On again 

 turning to the ' List of Mammalia,' we find that the type of Nesokia hard- 

 wichii was presented by General Hardwicke, and in connection with this 

 it is noteworthy that animals from the North- West Provinces of India 

 corresponding to the description of that species are remarkably like the 

 drawing of Arvicola indica. Moreover, Blyth states that there is no rat 

 in Bengal, nor apparently in Madras, corresponding to that figure, and by 

 extensive research, I can confirm this statement. 



In the Catalogue of the Specimens and Drawings of Mammalia and 

 Birds of Nepal and Tibet, presented by B. H. Hodgson to the British 

 Museum (1846), the KoJc^ M. providens, is assigned to NesoJcia, a course 

 which Blyth himself followed in his Memoir on the Eats and Mice of India 

 and in his Catalogue of Mammals. 



In 1842, Sir Walter Elliot presented two stuffed specimens of Mus 

 providens = M. hoh, Gray, to the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 

 and these specimens still exist in the Indian Museum. They apparently 

 belong to the variety found in the red soil, and which Elliot says is much 

 redder than the common Kolcu of the black land, and they are quite 

 distinct from M. (N.) Jiardwickii. 



On a review of these circumstances, I am disposed to make the sug- 

 gestion that the rat figured as Arvicola indica, and which Gray considered 

 to be the Mus indicus of Geoffroy, is in reality the rat described by him, 

 first under the name of Mus hardwickii, and afterwards as Nesokia 

 Jiardwickii ; and in connection with this view of the question, it is impor- 

 tant to bear in mind that the figure of Arvicola indica was received from 



* I. c. 



