1863. | A memoir on the Rats and Mice of India. 333 
the abdomen. Wars moderately large : thumb of the fore-feet very minute. 
Cutting teeth flat anteriorly, comparatively large, broad and nearly white. Tail 
nearly naked, and shorter than the body. Length from snout to root of the 
tail, 64 in.; of the tail3 in. Hab. Afghanstin, Pushut. (F. Moore.) 
The skin of the body of the specimen was probably a little stretched, and 
that of the tail shrunk, if the caudal vertebrae were not retained within it, as is 
very commonly the case with skins prepared for stuffing of this group of animals. 
All of the foregoing names are applied to animals of a bluff arvi- 
coline or vole-like aspect, with tail shorter than the head and body ; 
excepting the WZ. rattus et rattoides of Hodgson, which Dr. Gray 
refers to JL. indicus as adopted by him, whatever that species may 
prove to be, though it does not seem likely to turn out a Wesokia, 
and is not classed as such by Dr. Gray. 
Mus gBanpicota, Bechstein; founded on the Bandicota Rat of 
Pennant’s ‘ Quadrupeds,’ p. 877 ; the name, according to Mr. Elliot, 
being a corruption of Pandi-Koku (literally Pig-rat), Telegu, of the 
Wuddur caste, S. India:* I. giganteus Hardwicke, VII. p. 306, t. 
XVIII. ; I. perchal et ML. malabaricus, (Pennant) Shaw ; MW. tkria, 
B. Ham. (éned.) ; MW. nemorivagus, Hodgson, Ann. Mag. N. H. XV. 
(1845), p. 206, J. A. S. V. 284, ML. (Neotoma) giganteus, Eliot, 
Madr. Journ. Lit. Se. X. 209 (who thus classes it in the same parti- 
cular division as the NESOKIA INDICA). 
Gen. Hardwicke figures and describes this huge Rat of extraordi- 
nary size ; stating that—“ The subject here described and figured was 
a female. Its weight was 2 Ibs. 113 oz. Its total length 264 in., of 
which the tail measured from root to tip 18in. The male grows larger 
and weighs 3 tbs. and upwards.” Hence Mr. Hodgson was induced 
to consider his nemorivagus as distinct, beng about one-third smaller. 
He gives:—snout to rump 12 in.; tail 93 in.; weight 17 to 20 oz. 
“A full grown male,” according to Buchanan Hamilton (JZSS.), 
“measures 10,%, in. from nose to tail, and the tail 83 in.” The stuff- 
ed specimens in the Society’s collection are from Ceylon ; and mea- 
sure :—the head and body about 13 in., and tail (vertebrae) 94 in. 
These well agree with Buchanan Hamilton’s published figure. 
I find, however, on reference to the late Dr. Kelaart’s Prodromus 
Faune Zeylanice, that a large Cinghalese Bandicoot Rat measured 
* In Australia, the appellation ‘ Bandicoot’ has been currently adopted for 
a genus of small marsupial animals, the Perwmeles of Shaw. 
