200 MURINE. 



some of these varieties may be hybrids, as it has been lateiy shown* that, 

 in London, M. deeumanus, M. rattus, and M. alexandrinus interbreed and 

 commingle, yielding fertile hybrids of aU degrees of iutermediateness. 



This rat is fomid over great part of India. Mr. W. Elliot observed it 

 at Dharwar, frequenting stables and out-houses only, but abvmdant there'. 

 It is common at Calcutta, but there vary more than in Southern India. 

 I have met with it in various localities, at Madras, at NeUore, on trees gene- 

 rally, and on the Malabar coast ; but most abundantly at Secunderabad in 

 the Deccan, frequenting the beams and rafters of houses, verandahs, &c. 



It is perhaps Hodgson's M. hmnneusculus, which he says, " closely 

 resembles brunneus f'vel nemoralis), but considerably smaller; rusty brown 

 above, rusty below, extremities pale." 



Buchanan Hamilton states that at Calcutta it frequents cocoa-nut trees 

 and bamboos, making a nest with the branches, and bringing forth five or 

 six young in August and September. They eat grain, which they collect 

 in their nest, also young cocoa-nuts. They enter houses at night, but do 

 not live there. 



181. Mus niviventer. 



Hodgson, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1845. — Blyth, Memoir. 



The White-bellied House-rat. 



Descr. — Above blackish-brown, shaded with rufous; below entirely 

 white, tail and all. 



Length of one, head and body 5| inches ; tail 6 : another 6 inches 

 head and body; tail 7 ; hind-foot nearly 1|-. A female 7 inches long; tail 

 71 



This rat is stated by Hodgson to be a house-rat in Nepal, but not very 

 common. It is the rat very generally found in most hill stations, and 

 I found it very common at Daijeeling. Blyth also received it from 

 Mussoorie, from Colonel Tytler, and noticed it as " a well marked species, 

 rather larger than as originally described." In his Catalogue he gives 

 it doubtfully as a variety of M. rufescens. I have occasionally obtained 

 it in various other localities. 



Hodgson states it to have the proportions and character of his rattoides, 

 but to be less, with a shorter taU, and the long piles of the pelage rarer. 



* Froo. Linn. Soc. ISGS. 



