328 EODENTIA. 



Dr. Gray, when lie described this species, was uncertain whether it inhabited 

 India or Cochin China, but in the India Museum, London, there is a bamboo-rat bear- 

 ing this name of R. minor, Gray, and which was brought from Siam by Dr. Einlay- 

 son, a member of Crawford's mission to Cochin Cliina and Siam. There is also in the 

 British Museum a specimen resembling this Siam rat-mole, and wliich is stated to have 

 been procured by M. Mouhot in Cambodja. Dr. Horsfleld doubtfully includes the 

 thur of the Siamese, which Dr. Gray had considered to be M. badius, as a synonym 

 of M. minor, but he expresses no dubiety regarding the specific identity of his 

 Siam animal with that of R. minor. Gray. Dr. Gray, in his communication to the 

 Annals and Magazine of Natiu'al History in 1842, mentions that only some of the 

 new animals therein described were in the National Collection, and it may therefore 

 be, as he suggested, that Cochin China was the habitat of R. minor, that the specimen 

 now in the India Museum from Siam is the type of the species ; and that Dr. Gray 

 erroneously named Cochin China instead of Siam as the locality from whence 

 it was obtained, as Crawford's embassy was known as a mission to Cochin China. 

 Tills view of the question is strengthened by the circumstance that the India 

 Museum specimen exactly agrees with Dr. Gray's measurements of his type and 

 with his description. 



Both specimens may be described as dark sooty-brown, slightly tinged with 

 deep umber which is most distinct on the sides of the head and neck and in 

 reflected lights, but is least marked in the Cambodja specimen. The under parts 

 are like the upper, only the brown tint is almost absent. The whiskers are 

 black, and the tail has been very sparsely haired, as in R. castaneus and R. 

 badius. 



Dr. Gray's type measured 6-50 inches from the muzzle to the root of the tail, 

 and the tail was 1'75 inches in length, which are the measurements of the India 

 Museum specimen. The example in the British Museum from Cambodja is 7"30 

 inches in the former, and 2-20 in the latter of these two measurements. The skull 

 of the larger specimen is considerably smaller than the skull of adult examples of 

 R. badius, so that it is probable that the species does not attain to the size of the 

 latter. It is also closely allied to R. badius, as is evidenced by the strong similarity 

 of the skuU to the skull of that species, but the colour of the fur is pronouncedly 

 different. The skull in the British Museum removed from the Cambodja specimen 

 (Plate XVI, figs. 7 — 9) differs from the skull of R. badius in its smaller breadth across 

 the zygomatic arch and in the expansion and flattening of the frontal region. The 

 palatal surface across the premaxillary foramina is broader than in R. badius, and 

 there is a rather prominent ridge running along its outer wall to the outside of the 

 base of the front molar. The palatal surface is also broader than in R. badius, and 

 the alveolar border is much longer than in that species, and the muzzle also is some- 

 what longer and the infraorbital foramen larger. The palatal border of the posterior 

 nares is much more contracted than in the other species, the ends of the palatines 

 being divergent at a very acute angle, and it is placed more anteriorly than in the 

 other species, being opposite to the middle of the last molar. 



