42 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Voiv. I, 



be captured in a palm tree but refuses to guarantee the truth of this statement. In 

 the middle of August I found two pregnant females, each containing two half-grown 

 fœtuses. Blanford records it from Bengal (Purnea and Calcutta, where it is rare) ; 

 Eastern Himalayas, Assam (Sibsagar) ; and the Khasi Hills ; also Formosa The 

 species probably extends to Burma and Malay countries. I am credibly informed that 

 it is common in the rice-fields all over Lower Bengal and that the ryots (peasants) 

 when the rice has been cut and harvested habitually pillage its grain store. As much 

 as two or three pounds of rice or grain is said to be not an uncommon amount in a 

 burrow. 



Skull.^The general characters of the skull are not so truly Nesokian as in the 

 smaller and more typical species such as hardwickii and hengalensis. Except that the 

 zygomatic arches are expanded, giving a big total breadth to the skull, 539 per cent, 

 against 49' 5, and the greater development of the zygomatic plate, 17-1 per cent, against 

 137, in its general contour and appearance it is not so very unlike a large M.decumanus 

 skull. The anterior palatine foramina, however, are narrower and more closed, the 

 zygomatic plate is longer and more massive, the palate is characteristic. From the 

 two anterior palatine foramina run back over the surface of the palate two rather 

 pronounced longitudinal furrows. These grooves, near their hinder extremities, have 

 the posterior palatine foramina lying in their course, and beyond them they are pro- 

 longed over the posterior margin of the palatines, where they nearly constitute a 

 closed canal by the inward projection of the inner palatine border of the maxilla and 

 the somewhat thickened and anteriorly recurved posterior margin of the palatines. 

 The grooving is very feebly shown in Mus , and thickening of the hinder margin of the 

 palatines is, as a rule, wanting. In M. decumanus skulls, however, it is occasionally 

 found to a slight degree. The tympanic bullae are relatively larger, being i8-8 per cent, 

 in length against 17-2 per cent, in M. decumanus. These characters are characters com- 

 mon to all the NesokicB. The supraorbital and other ridges are very marked. The 

 cranial upper surface is broadest anteriorly instead of posteriorly as in M. decumanus. 

 The swelling, due to the root of the upper incisors immediately behind the premaxillary 

 junction, is very marked, so that the lower part of the infraorbital foramen is almost 

 closed, it is so narrowed. The occiput slopes downwards and backwards so that the 

 condyles are the most projecting point posteriorly. The anterior palatine foramina 

 are narrow and equal in length to the molar series. The nasals, in relation to the 

 gnathion, are short, projecting beyond it only 2 mm., but relatively to the skull are 

 of average length, 36-3, about the same as is found in M. rattus and M. decumanus, 

 whereas in the smaller and more typical Nesokia the nasal percentage is as low as 28 

 and 30. 



The sutures generally are very serrated and irregular. The coronoid suture as 

 usual is variable; most commonly it is semicircularly convex backwards, but it may 

 be markedly angular, and in one instance showed two angles so as to have the pos- 

 terior end of the frontal cut off square, as already described in N. hengalensis. 



The interparietal is very variable and is frequently asymmetrical, as is figured in 

 Anderson's types of this and typical N . handicota. It is commonly roughly pentagonal 



