194 MUBIN^. 



showed great fight. It is found in all towns and large villages in the south, 

 frequenting granaries and sta«k-yards, and is very destructive to the stores 

 of grain, on which it chiefly feeds. It burrows under walls and often 

 injures the foundations of houses. Besides grain it will feed on fruit and 

 various other vegetable matter, and even at times it is said animal food. 

 At Newera-elEa in Ceylon, it is said to be very destructive to potatoes, 

 peas, &c. It does not occur to my knowledge in the Neelgherries, a similar 

 climate. Kelaart says that it occasionally attacks poultry also. When 

 assailed it grunts like a pig, hence its Telugu name. It is eaten by some 

 classes of natives. Hodgson in his first account of M. nemorivagus stated 

 that it avoids houses, and dwells in burrows in fields and small woods. 

 He subsequently stated that it was a house-rat, and most likely identical 

 with the bandicoot. 



Mus andamensis, Blyth, is, according to that gentlemen, in an annotated 

 copy of his Memoir sent to me, the M. setifer apud Cantor, and inhabits 

 the Andaman islands, probably the Mcobars, (in which case Jf. nicobaricus, 

 Scherzer,) and the Malayan peninsula. 



In Blyth's MSS. notes, above alluded to, he gives "a small pale speci- 

 men (of M. andamanensis) in the British Museum, marked M. koh from 

 India ? Perhaps an allied species." Is it possible that this is Hodgson's 

 M. rattoides, instead of that being referred to M. rattus, which we know 

 to be rare except near the coast.' 



175. Mus rattus. 



LiNN^rs. — Bmth, Cat, p. 113. — Elliot, Cat. 34. — M. rattoides, 

 Hodgson. 



The Black-eat. 



Descr. — Grayish black above, dark ashy beneath, tail longer tlian the 

 body, long piles numerous, somewhat flattened. 



Length of one, head and body 7^^ ; tail 8 inches. 



The muzzle is sharper than that of the brown rat, the ears more oval, 

 and it is lighter in its make, and with much longer hair. 



Hodgson describes his M. rattoides, as " above dusky or blackish brown, 

 below dusky hoary. Limbs dark, fingers pale ; tail longer than head and 

 body ; long piles sufficiently numerous. Length, snout to vent 7^ inches; tail 

 8J ; ears |ths ; palm -ifths ; sole li. Gray at one time referred Hodgson's 



