32 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol,. I, 



by this species, containing large lumps of brick. At the same time a brick drain 

 got totally blocked owing to their burrowing in the foundations. Their swimming 

 and diving habits have been noted by Blanford, Anderson, and Blyth ; the last 

 author also refers to their fierceness and habit of bristling their coat. Personally 

 I have noted that when brought in a cage they snarl and bristle at one, their 

 snouts are bleeding from their violent dashes against the bars, while the whole cage 

 is in a constant ferment of savage attack and counterattack. When the cage is 

 submerged they swim up, down and round with ease and unconcern, and it is only 

 when asphyxia is coming on that they begin to exhibit alarm or to struggle. In 

 huts where grain is stored and in godowns, the whole yard and the plinths of the 

 surrounding huts are found riddled with their burrows, as also are the clay walls 

 of the huts. The native has devised a simple but effective method of keeping them 

 down. Under the huge sack granaries in which the grain is stored, they place sheets 

 of corrugated iron ; periodically the sacks are shifted, the sheets removed, and with 

 a few strokes of the kodali (hoe) , burrows, rats' nests and young are exposed, and a 

 holocaust ensues. 



These rats are frequently brought into the depots alive in enormous batches ; 

 for instance I have seen as many as seventy in one gunny bag, all caught by hand in 

 one flour-mill. Whenever a batch is particularly large, it always turns out that instead 

 of being trapped they have been caught by hand. The favourite method is for the rat- 

 catcher to take up a position after dark by a favourite run, generally a small ungrated 

 opening in the wall through which waste water runs off into the large open sewer, 

 drain or ditch by the side of the road such as is still found in Entally and the out- 

 skirts of the city. A candle is generally used, and the hand is protected by being loosely 

 wrapped in a cloth. I have been told of one particularly expert rat-killer who was 

 blind, but who could locate the rats so exactly by ear that it was seldom that his 

 stick missed. A common method of hand catching is to stop up all the holes except one 

 or two, flood the run with water and secure the rats in sacks or by hand as they bolt 



One particularly successful rat-catcher whose hut adjoins a small native flour 

 mill has shown me a particularly effective method of using an ordinary " Wonder" 

 trap. A hole large enough to contain the trap is dug in the floor of the hut across 

 one of the runs. Grain is strewn in the bottom of it and the top covered with a 

 stone or board. In two or three nights the hole becomes the chief resort of the 

 rats, which take it apparently for the central storage chamber of their run. The 

 cage will then be found crowded every morning. 



Distribution. — The greater part of the Indian Peninsula from the base of the Hima- 

 layas to Cape Comorin, and from lyower Sind to Cachar, and, I believe, Assam ; more 

 common in damp alluvial tracts, but ascending to the tops of the Nilgiris and other 

 hills. Found also in Ceylon and in the valley of Kashmir, and apparently throughout 

 Burma to the Mergui Archipelago. (After Blanford.) 



Teeth. — Thomas gives as the characteristics of the subgenus Nesokia, molars com- 

 posed of transverse laminae and incisors very broad, finely sculptured in front as com- 

 pared with the narrow and smooth incisors of Mus proper. Blanford follows Thomas, 



