1863. ] A memoir on the Rats and Mice of India. 329 
it the M. rattus (?) v. rattoides of Hodgson, the description of which indicates 
a very different animal, with tail longer than the head and body. He also 
dubiously refers the M. bruwneusculus, Hodgson, to the same. 
This is undoubtedly the common shortish-tailed field Rat of all 
India, with Ceylon; varying somewhat in shade of hue according 
to the colour of the soil on which it dwells. Though the reverse 
of gracile in its appearance, with much of the aspect of an arvicola, 
it is marvellously rapid in its movements, as it plays about the 
entrance of its burrow!* And the type, if not the same species, 
occurs in Afghdnstén ; but I have not seen it from the eastward of 
the Bay of Bengal though it is likely enough to occur in the dry 
climate of the region of the upper Irawadi. 
The Indian animal is excellently described by the Hon’ble Walter 
Hlliot, in the Madr. Journ. Lit. Sc. X, 209 (1839), by the name 
Mus (Neotoma) providens, with M. indicus, Geoff. and Arvicola in- 
dica, Gray, cited as synonyms, and the Canarese name Kok or Koku 
also assigned to it. He gives an elaborate account of the habits of 
the animal; and remarks that—‘“ A variety found in the red soil is 
much redder in colour than the common Kokw of the black land. 
Another variety, he adds, “is said to frequent the banks of nullahs, 
and to take to the water when pursued; but the specimens I have 
seen differed in no respect from the common kind, (of which they 
appeared to be young individuals,) except im size.” “ The dimensions 
of an old male were as follow :—length of body, 7 in.; of tail 63 in. [!] 
sole 1,4, in., weight 6 oz. 5 dr.” According to my observation, the 
tail has not exceeded 54 in., from any part of the country. 
In the Proc. Zool. Soc. for 1835, p. 108, it is recorded that speci- 
mens were exhibited of eight species of Rats and Mice, collected in 
India by Walter Eliot, Esq, They were brought under the notice 
of the meeting by Mr. Gray, who stated that five of them were 
hitherto undeseribed* * *. The mouse which Mr. Gray has figured 
from Gen. Hardwicke’s drawings, in the ‘ Illustrations of Indian Zoo- 
* The species of RH1zomys are rather slow in their movements. 
+ ‘‘ It seems necessary,” remarks Mr. Elliot, “ to distinguish this species by a 
new name, that of indicus bemg too general and indefinite. Geoffroy’s animal] 
is not sufficiently particularized, to indicate which of the Indian species he meant: 
and Gray’s was given under the supposition that it applied to an ARVICOLA, 
which, he subsequently discovered, it did not (P. Z. 8. 1835, p. 108). The pre: 
sent term seems sufficiently applicable to its habit of laying up a large eof 
grain for its winter food.” sais ee 
rine? 
