330 A memoir on the Rats and Mice of India. [No. 4, 
logy,’ under the name of Arvicola indica, is really aus. A second 
time, therefore, the specific name InDIcUS claims priority. Mr. Elliot 
subsequently presented specimens of this common Indian field Rat 
to the Society’s Museum, which are before me as I now write. 
In the Mag. Nat. Hist. n. s. I. (1887), p. 585, Mr. Gray de- 
scribes a Mus Kok (!), with the synonym of Arvicola indica, Gray. 
“Length of body (dry) 93 in., tail 43 in.; hind-feet 12 in. Inha- 
bits India.” Doubtless from one of Mr. Elliot’s specimens; but 
how different the admeasurements taken froma dry skin! On the 
same occasion he describes a Mus Hardwickei. “Very much like 
MM. Kok, but the skull is much wider and stronger, and rather larger ; 
and the cutting teeth are nearly twice as wide, and are flat in front. 
The grinders are very little larger than those of that species. Inhabits 
India; gardens.” I considerably suspect that these are merely adult 
and young of the same species! With numerous specimens before me 
from Lower Bengal, the Midnapore district, the Carnatic, S. Malabar, 
and Ceylon, I can recognise one species only, varying a little in shade 
of hue from different localities, and also somewhat in quality of fur, 
unless this latter difference may prove to be seasonal, as is not impro- 
bable. In his catalogue of the specimens of Mammalia in the British 
Museum, p. 110, Mr. Gray retains his JZ. Kok under mus, and gives 
as synonym J. (Neotoma) providens, Elliot, Arvicola indica, Gray, 
and also MUS INDICUS, Geoffroy. (Why, therefore, not adopt this 
last and much the oldest name for the species F). And at p. 113, well 
removed from the former, he gives Nesoxra HarpwicKel, v. Mus 
Hardwickei, Gray, and no other species is referred by him to Nesokia 
in that catalogue. But in his catalogue of the specimens and draw- 
ings of Mammalia and birds of Nepal and Tibet, presented by B. H. 
Hodgson, Esq., to the British Museum (1846), the Kok v. providens, 
is assigned to Wesokia.* 
So common and widely diffused a Rat as this is, throughout the 
plains of India, must needs be found in the valley of Nepal; and, if so, — 
will be sure to have received one or more names from Mr. Hodgson. 
* The late Dr. Kelaart, in his Prodromus Fannae Zeylanicae, recognises apart 
Nesokia Hardwickei, Gray, (Mus dubiws, Kelaart), and Nesokia Kok, Gray (Arvi- 
cola indica, Gray, and Neotoma providens, Elliot). A Cinghalese specimen pre- 
sented by him to the Society is undoubtedly of the common Bengal species. 
His N. Kok appear to have been described from a distorted stuffed specimen, of 
at most a slight individual variety to the best of my judgment; and he states 
of it “ Dentition as in the last species.” (!) - 
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