188 MUElNiE. 



Length, head and body 7 inches ; tail 6 ; head 1 Jjy ; ear ^ths ; fore- 

 pahu -^ths ; hind-palm l^^. Another measured, head and body 8J ; 

 tail 6 ; hind-foot 1|. 



Hodgson describes his M. pyctoris as follows : — " Characterized by its 

 bluff face with short thick muzzle, and by its short tail. Pelage of two 

 sorts, with the long piles sufficiently abimdant ; color dusky brown with a 

 very yague rufous tinge ; below fulvesoent ; long hairs black, rest with hoary 

 bases and black points ; inner piles mostly dusky. Length, snout to vent, 7 

 inches ; tail 4| ; head If ; ears ^ths ; palm |^ths ; planta 1;^. I think there 

 can be very Uttle doubt that this is the same as the Tcoh of Southern India, 

 but I do not think that the specimen in the British Museum, with that 

 name attached, described by Gray, is the same, but rather that of one of the 

 allied species.* 



This large field-rat is found throughout India, ranging up to a consi- 

 derable altitude, above 7,000 feet, and also in Ceylon, but is not hitherto 

 recorded from the east of the Bay of Bengal. 



Mr Elliot has given the following interesting account of the habits of 

 this rat : — 



" In its habits it is solitary, fierce, living secluded in spacious burrows, 

 in which it stores up large quantities of grain during the harvest, and 

 when that is consumed, Kves upon the hurt/alee grass and other roots. 

 The female produces from eight to ten at- a birth, which she sends out of 

 her burrow as soon as they are able to provide for themselves. When ir- 

 ritated, it utters a low grunting cry like the bandicoot. 



The race of people known by the name of Wuddurs or tank-diggers, 

 capture this animal in great numbers as an article of food, and during the 

 harvest they plunder their earths of the grain stored up for their winter 

 consumption, which in favorable localities they find in such quantities as 

 as to subsist almost entirely upon it, during that season of the year. A 

 single burrow will sometimes yield as much as half a seer (1 lb.) of grain 

 containing even whole ears of jowaree {Holchus sorghum). 



The hole aboimds in the richly cultivated black plains or cotton ground, 

 but the heavy raius often inundate their earths, destroy their stores, and 

 force them to seek a new habitation. I dug up a winter burrow in August 

 1833, situated near the old one, which was deserted from this cause. The 

 animal had left the level ground, and constructed its new habitation in the 

 sloping bank of an old well. The entrance was covered with a mound of 



Vide, p. 192. 



