1876.] 165 



XI. — Description of Golunda Ellioti from Sind. 

 By W. T. Blanfoed, F. B. S. 

 (Eecd. June 28th ;— Eead August 2nd, 1876). 

 (With Plate X.) 



Aniongst a few mammals and reptiles in spirit, collected and given to 

 me by Mr. H. E. Watson of the Sind Commission, are two specimens, one 

 adult, the other young, of a mouse or small rat with very coarse, flat, grooved 

 hairs and the upper incisors sulcated. These mice were obtained on the 

 soiithern extremity of the Khirthar, a range of mountains which forms the 

 western boundary of Upjjer Sind, but which enters the province nearly west of 

 Sehwan, and running thence south-south-east, terminates about 40 miles south 

 of Sehwan and rather more than 50 north-west of Kotri. At their southern 

 extremity these hills are 2300 feet high, to the north they are from 4000 

 to 6000, some peaks being even higher. 



The skull of the larger specimen, on being extracted, proves to be of 

 the ordinary murine type, and the only peculiarity is in the characters of the 

 teeth. The iipper incisors are grooved, and the molars, instead of being 

 simply tuberculate, as in Mus, appear to be formed of deep folds of enamel, 

 as in Gerbillus or Nesohia, but the form of the folds is widely different 

 from what it is in those genera ; each fold consisting of a number of deep 

 lobes or pillars with a nearly semicircular section. Thus the upper surface 

 of the crown of the tooth has a most peculiar reticulated appearance. 

 The semicircular lobes are arranged throughout the teeth in three longitudi- 

 nal series in the upper, and two in the lower jaw. In older specimens the 

 lobes may run more into each other, but the skull examined is fully advdt. 



No description or figure, so far as I am aware, of the teeth of any Indian 

 mouse has ever been published exhibiting the peculiarities above described. 

 The published descriptions of the molar teeth in Leggada and Golunda 

 appear to me to differ materially from those of the specimen from Sind. 

 The incisors in Leggada are nowhere said to be grooved, and no mention is 

 made in any of the descriptions of Golunda by Gray,* Elliot, f or JerdomJ- 

 of flattened or grooved hairs. I unfortunately did not at first examine the 

 specimens of Golunda Ellioti in the Indian Museum sufficiently carefully, 

 as the description both of the fur and dentition appeared to me to refer to 



* Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist. I, 1837, p. 586. 

 t Mad. Jour. Lit. and Science, X, 1839, p. 213. 

 % Mammals of India, n. 212. 



22 



