1879.] in the Dakhan during the Harvest of 1878-79. 145 
The people attribute these ravages to the Jerboa rat (Gerbillus indicus 
or G. cuvieri) which they usually call the pdandhardé undir, that is, the 
white rat. The white belly of the Gerdzile is often distinctly seen when it 
is jumping about in the dusk of evening. They say there are also Kalé 
undir, that is black rats, among the robbers, but that they are comparative- 
ly few. These are the Kok or mole-rats (Nesokia indica) which are not 
black but only dark and much of the size and colour of the brown house-rat 
(Mus decumanus), though they are at once distinguished by their broad 
bluff muzzle, and are much heavier. The people suppose that the Mettads, 
which are of still another group and are for their size more destructive than 
either of the above, are the young of the others. Jerdon calls the Mettéd 
(Golunda mettada) “ the soft-furred field-rat.” Most would rather call it 
the large-eared field-mouse. These three species include most of “ the 
horrid rats’ which have increased so astonishingly, and thus have been able 
to ravage so large a region. In some places the house-rats and mice, and 
other field rats and spiny mice helped to devour the crop. 
I wrote of these matters briefly to Mr. W. T. Blanford, who is 
our authority on matters pertaining to the Mammalia, and I give an 
extract from his answer, as follows :—“ By one of the last mails I had a 
letter from Sir Walter Elliot (who, you may remember, was the first to 
collect the rats and mice of the Dekhan and to notice the injury commit- 
ted by them,) referring to the plague these animals had been, and suggest- 
ing that Mus mettada was again the depredator. It is new to me to hear 
of Gerbillus indicus (or rather the Southern G. cwvieri) as a serious 
nuisance.” But though I think the Mettad should have the credit 
of learning to climb the Sorghum stalks and to cut off the ears of grain, 
there is no doubt that the Gerbi/les have been the most numerous and so 
the most destructive this year. They have been taken in the act every- 
where. And for the sake of the crops to come, it is particularly a matter of 
regret that they seem to thrive just as well during the rains as in the other 
parts of the year. The Mettad lives mostly in the cracks and the small 
burrows it makes in the black soil ; and the Kok burrows in the black soil. 
Where the first rains that fell were heavy, the black soil suddenly swelling, 
so as to fill up any holes or cracks there had been in it, caught the Mettad 
and Kok rats as securely as traps would have caught them and smothered 
the greater part of them. T. Davidson, Esq., writing me from Madha, of the 
Sholaptir Collectorate, on the 29th May, tells how it was there. “ There was 
a grand slaughter of rats on Monday night and Tuesday morning. It 
rained 2.65 inches, and in the morning the whole black soil was covered with 
dead and dying rats, sticking in the mud. The people say half have died.” 
But the Jerboa rat makes his burrow in the light soil, in stony places, 
ee 
