1863. | A memoir on the Rats and Mice of India. 353 
to the fore-feet, with a clawless rudimentary thumb [as in all smuri- 
de’| *** Yneisors yellow, the superior grooved in the centre: 
molars flat, deeply 3-lobed, the tubercles rising in three distinct lines, 
middle larger than those of the sides, and the front one extending 
beyond the other lobes. 
“This Rat is found in pairs in the black soil of Newera Ellia, and 
is a great destroyer of peas and potatoes. In the Ouva district, we 
found another soil Rat, smaller than the above, and of a pale ashy 
colour, which at the time we referred to ZL. boodaga of Gray, but 
having since lost the specimen preserved in spirit, we are not able to 
give a description of it. That it was very different from every other 
Rat here described [in Prodromus], we have no doubt.” 
Genus Hapatomys, Blyth, J. 4. S. XXVIII. 296. 
H. Loneicaupatws, Bl., loc. cit. Received from Schwe Gyen, on 
the Sitang river. 
The reader has at length before him, without need of further re- 
search in books (so far as I can discover), an epitome of the long and 
perplexing series of Indian Muride, so far as the published descrip- 
tions of them can help him to identify any species that may fall un- 
der observation. In any part of India and the neighbouring coun- 
tries, he might render useful service by collecting an adequate series 
of examples of the species procurable in the vicinity, both carefully 
prepared skins for mounting, and some entire specimens in spirit. 
Wherever found, these animals are, in general, obtainable in any 
quantity, from certain classes of natives who eat them, (or at least 
those inhabiting the jungles or open country,) and who are familiar 
with their haunts and habits. With really good and properly pre- 
served specimens from different parts, and in sufficient number, the 
real species would soon be discriminated from the factitious, as in- 
deed is already the case with a good many of them; and the latter 
would soon fall into the rank of synonyms, as by degrees one after 
another became identified and understood. It may not be a particu- 
larly inviting group to study, in the opinion of many observers and 
collectors; but it needs to be assiduously ‘wrought out ;’ and the 
difficulty of reconciling the synonyms will be considerably diminished 
now that all the very numerous names and descriptions have been 
collated in one continuous grand series. 
eae 
