212 MUEiirj!. 



199. Golunda EUiotti. 



Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837.~Blyth, Cat. p. 121.— Mus hirsutvs 

 Elliot, Cat. 36. — M. coffcms, Kblaaet. — Gulandi, Can. — Gulat yelka, 

 of Waddurs. — Sora-panji-gadur, Tel. of Yanadees. 



The Bush-rat. 



Descr. — Above olive-brown mixed with fulvous, giving a dusky fulvous 

 tint ; beneath yellowish-tawny or light yellowish gray ; the tail somewhat 

 villose ; the head long, muzzle blunt, rounded, and covered with rougli 

 hair, as are the face and cheeks ; ears round, hairy ; whiskers long and 

 very fine. 



Length of one, head and body 6^ ; tail 4 J^ ; head 1 yL ; ear ^ths. 



This rat is found only in southern India and Ceylon. I have only met 

 with it myself in the Carnatic, Malabar, and the Deccan. 



" The gulandi," observes Mr. Elliot, " lives entirely above ground, in a 

 habitation constructed of grass and leaves, generally in the root of a bush, 

 at no great height from the ground ; often indeed touching the surface." 

 Again : " The gulandi lives entirely in the jungle, choosing its habitation 

 in a thick bush, among the thorny branches of which, or on the ground, 

 it constructs a nest of elastic stalks and fibres of dry grass, thickly inter- 

 woven. The nest is of a round or oblong shape, from 6 to 9 inches in 

 diameter, within which is a chamber about 3 or 4 inches in diameter, in 

 which it rolls itself up. Eound and through the bush are sometimes 

 observed small beaten pathways along which the little animal seems habitu- 

 ally to pass. Its motion is somewhat slow, and it does not appear to have 

 the same power of leaping or springing, by which the rats in general avoid 

 danger. Its food seems to be vegetable, the only contents of the stomach 

 observed being the roots of the haryalee grass. Its habits are solitary 

 except (when the female is bringing up her young) and diurnal, feeding 

 in the mornings and evenings.'' 



The Yanadees of Nelloro catch this rat, surrounding the bush and 

 seizing it as it issues forth, which its comparatively slow actions enable them 

 to do easily. I have always foimd the nest on the ground or very close to 

 it, in the midst generally of a thorny mass of Zizyphus nummularia. 



This is the coffee rat of Ceylon, so destructive to coffee trees, whole 

 plantations being sometimes deprived of buds and blossoms by these rats. 



