232 J. Anderson — On tJte Sub- Genus "Nesokia. [No. 4, 



M. (iV.) hlythianus more than that of the former, being less elongated and 

 with a shorter muzzle, with less breadth between the lachrymal foramina. 

 The teeth have the same characters as in M. {N.) hlythianus, but, of course, 

 are very much larger. The nasals are moderately short and very different 

 from the broad nasals of M. {N.) gic/anteus. 



The total length of the skull of the largest male is 2*20 from the upper 

 border of the foramen magnum to the end of the premaxillaries, with a 

 maximum breadth of 1"27 across the zygomatic. 



Mr. S. E. Peal has presented to the Indian Museum from Sibsagar, 

 Assam, a rat distinctly referable to this species, and I am indebted to 

 Mr. W. T. Blanford for the opportunity to examine another example of 

 this species from the Khasi Hills. 



In all of these skulls, the female as well as the male, the incisors are 

 bright orange, but in the female somewhat paler, due to her youth or, it may 

 be, sex, and with white tips as in the male Assam skull. 



I obtained this rat first at Purneah and afterwards two specimens at 

 Calcutta. The adult male of these two I obtained from a native who assert- 

 ed that he found it in a palm tree, which I discredit. It is evidently a bur- 

 rowing rat closely allied to M. (AT.) hlytliianus. It would appear to be very 

 rare about Calcutta, for I have not succeeded in obtaining more than two 

 specimens, notwithstanding that I have made special efforts to obtain 

 others. In all probability, the rats mentioned by Hardwicke as Calcutta 

 bandicoots were large examples of Miis decumanus, which occasionally at- 

 tains to a great size. 



Blyth, in his Memoir on the Eats and Mice of India, remarked that 

 Nesokia indica (•=Mus hlythianus) had not been seen from the eastward of 

 the Bay of Bengal, though it was likely enough to occur in the dry climate 

 of the region of the Upper Irawadi. Mr. Theobald in 1866*, in confirmation 

 of this supposition of Blyth's, recorded the occurrence at Tonghoo, on the 

 Sittang, of a rat which he referred to this sub-genus. The dimensions 

 indicate an animal of about the same size as M. {N.) elliotanus, but dis- 

 tinguished from it at once by the different proportions of its tail and trunk. 

 It is in all probability a new species. 



Mrs (NeSOKIa) GiaANTEUS. 



Mus giganteus, Hardwicke, Trans. Journ. Linn. Soc, Vol. VII, 1804, 

 p. 306, PL 18 ; Desm. Mamm. 1822, p. 298 ; Brantz, Muizen, 1827, p. 101 ; 

 Gray, Proc. Zoo. Soc. 1832, p. 40 ; Kelaart, Faunae Zeylanicse, 1852, p. 58. 



Mus {Neotomd) giganteus, Elliot, Madr. Journ. Lit. and Sc, Vol. X, 

 1839, p. 209. 



* Proc. As. Soc. Beng. p. 239. 



