114 W. T. Blanford— On the Yules (Arvlcola) of the [No. 2, 



fairly be inferred that the type was one of the spirit-specimens recently 

 received at the British Museum from the East-India Museum. All such 

 specimens are unquestionably A. sikimensis. 



All Mr. Hodgson's specimens appear to have been obtained in Dar- 

 jiling itself or the immediate vicinity of the station. In one case he obtained 

 a male, female, and two young in a nest, saucer-shaped, made of soft grass, 

 without any lining, 6 inches in diameter. The nest was in a decayed fallen 

 tree in the forest. The young were " 2£ inches long, hairy above, nude 

 below, and blind ; the ears also closed." 



A story current amongst the people is noticed, to the effect that this 

 animal, which the Hindi-speaking Nepalese call Fhal-chua, or Fruit-Rat, 

 appears at long intervals, and is produced out of the fruit of a tree, a large 

 species of wild olive, said, on Dr. Thomson's authority, to be common in 

 the deep forests of the central and northern region at 7000 to 15,000 feet 

 (neither the botanical nor Nepalese name of the tree is given in the MS. 

 notes). It is probable, from the existence of this story, that these Voles, 

 like some other species of the genus, appear in much larger numbers at 

 times. 



9. Arvicola melanogaster. (Teeth, Plate II, fig. A.) 

 Arvicola melanogaster, A. Milne-Edwards, Nouv. Arch, du Museum, 1871, 



Vol. VII, p. 93; Recherches pour ' servir a Vhistoire naturelle des 



Mammiferes, Vol. I, p. 284, pis. XLIV, XLVI a. 



Colour above varying from dark brown with a greyish tinge to black- 

 ish brown, below ashy grey. Tail the same colour as the back above, rather 

 paler and greyer beneath. Feet brown above. • In some specimens the 

 head is lighter and more rufous above than the back ; but in general there 

 is no difference. Of a variety from Fokien several specimens are bright 

 rufous-brown above. The usual colour, however, is precisely the same as 

 in A. sikimensis. 



Fur soft, dark leaden grey at the base, tips brown. In the darker 

 specimens (one marked as killed in March) there are much coarser hairs 

 intermixed. In the brown specimens this is not usually the case to the 

 same extent, but there are a few longer black-tipped hairs on the back and 

 rump. 



Ears projecting slightly beyond the fur by about one third of their 

 length, not nearly so much as in A. sikimensis, thinly clad with short hair 

 inside and out, and with a tuft of long hair on the anterior inner margin 

 near the base. 



Whiskers dark brown, a few of the lower grey, the longest extending 

 to the ears, but not beyond. 



Feet small ; claws white, compressed, moderate in length, only partly 



