1876.] W. T. Blanford— On Golunda Ellioti. 169 



from the Asiatic Society's collection, and one of them is Golunda Ellioti 

 No. 297 D. of Mr. Blyth's Catalogue from. Southern India, presented by 

 Mr. Elliot. The other, of which the label has been lost, is doubtless 

 No. 297 E from Ceylon. These specimens, as already stated, agree very 

 well with Kelaart's description of his Golunda Ellioti (Mus eoffceus),* but, 

 as was remarked by Mr. Blyth, they do not agree with Mus hirsutus, 

 Elliot, f although the specimens from Southern India appear to have been 

 sent as representing that species, or at least Golunda Ellioti, with which 

 Mus hirsutus was identified by Dr. Gray. 



Mus hirsutus, the Gulandi of the Canarese, is described by Elliot as 

 being 10i inches long, of which the head and body measure 6f, and the 

 tail 4~, whilst the head is only 1 T ^ in. It is of course possible that these 

 measurements were taken from a stretched skin, and that of the tail agrees 

 fairly with the form above described, though its proportion to the body 

 appears very different. But there are other distinctions : the ears are said 

 to be villose, and although the fur is not described, a preliminary list of the 

 species of rats and mice J in the South Mahratta country is given, in 

 which the following are classed as having tuberculated molars and soft 

 hairs — Mus decumanus, rattus, mettade (lanuginosus) , golundee (hirsutus), 

 oleraceus, rufus, and tnusculus — and opposed to M . platythrix and M. Boo- 

 daga said to have tuberculated molars and to be covered with hair and 

 spines. 



The original description of Golunda Ellioti, Gray,§ like too many of that 

 author's descriptions, is quite insufficient for determination. Not a word 

 is said of flat hairs : the fur is described as " pale brown, with minute very 

 slender, hair pointed black tips." The ears are said to be " covered with 

 short hairs." No dimensions are given. The description is included in a 

 paper entitled " Description of some new or little-known Mammalia, prin- 

 cipally in the British Museum Collection." In the list of Mammalia in 

 the British Museum, p. 113, the only specimen of Golunda Ellioti men- 

 tioned is stated to be from Madras and to have been presented by Walter 

 Elliot, Esq. In this list Mus hirsutus, Elliot, is identified with Golunda 

 Ellioti. It is to be noted that in the original description of Golunda 

 Ellioti the habitat was said to be Bombay. Without consulting the 

 British Museum specimens it is impossible to say whether the specimen 

 presented by Mr. Elliot was the original type or not, but to judge from the 

 name it probably was, so that there can be very little doubt of the 



* Prod. Faun. Zeyl., 1. c. 



f Mad. Jour. Lit. and Sci. X, p. 213. 



% lb., p. 208. 



§ Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist. I, p. 586. 



