MAMMALIA. 



47 



result of showing that the number of species is considerably larger than it was supposed to 

 be by Blyth 1 and Jerdon. 2 The former considered the various animals described as Mus 

 indicus by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 3 Mus (Neotoma) providens by W. Elliot, 4 Mus kok, 5 Mus 

 hardivickei, and Nesokia hardwickei? by Dr. Gray, Mus huttoni, 7 by himself, and some other 

 described forms, all to belong to one species, which he called Nesokia indica, and to which 

 he referred the Arvicola indica of Gray and Hardwicke. 8 He was also disposed to believe that 

 some of the numerous names given by Mr. Hodgson to the various species of rats and mice 

 inhabiting Nepal would be found to belong to the same animal. In some notes subsequently 

 published, 9 after examining the types in the British Museum, Mr. Blyth recognised the dis- 

 tinctness of N. hardivickei. 



Dr. Jerdon separated the "short-tailed mole rat" of the North- West Provinces, an animal 

 which he identified with Gray's Nesokia hardivickei, from the longer tailed Nesokia of 

 Bengal and Southern India, and indicated the existence of at least one additional species. I 

 subsequently 10 gave reasons for distinguishing N. huttoni of Baluchistan and Kandahar from 

 N. hardwickei. I may add that with a much increased knowledge of N. hardwickei I doubt 

 whether the differences I then mentioned are constant. 



It should be added that Prof. Peters of Berlin, in 1860, gave an excellent description of 

 Nesokia hardwickei, with figures of the skull, under the supposition that the genus and 

 species were undescribed, and he called it Spalacomys indica} 1 



Dr. Anderson, in his recent paper, considers Nesokia a subgenus of Mus, and refers to it, 

 besides the mole-rats of Jerdon, the bandicoot, Mus bandicota v. giganteus, and an allied species, 

 M. elliotanus, previously unnamed, unless it prove, as is not improbable, to be M. nemori- 

 vagus n of Hodgson or the true M. setifer 13 of Horsfield. The species referred to the subgenus 

 are classed by Dr. Anderson in three sections, — one, the typical group containing the original 

 type of the genus, N. hardwickei, and its allies N. huttoni and N. scullyi ; a second section 

 comprising the N. indica of Blyth and Jerdon, which Dr. Anderson renames N. blythiana ,and 

 from which he separates N. providens of Elliot, and another species which he calls N. bar- 

 clayana ; and the bandicoot group, N. giganteus and N. elliotanus. He shews that the Mus 

 indicus of Geoffroy St. Hilaire was not a Nesokia, and he considers that Arvicola indica was 

 the same as Mus hardwickei, consequently the Nesokia indica of Blyth and Jerdon requires 

 another specific name. He refers the Kashmir species to N. barclayana. 



The differences between the two more important sections of the genus or subgenus are 

 the following : the bandicoots, forming the third section, do not extend into the countries with 

 which the present work is concerned, and their title to be classed in the genus Nesokia is open 

 to some doubt, they being, in fact, intermediate in characters between Nesokia and Mus. In 



1 J. A. S. B., 1863, xxxii, pp. 328—333. 



2 Mam. Ind., pp. 187, 190. 



3 Desinarest, Mam., p. 299. 



4 Mad. Jour. Lit. Sci., x, p. 209. 



5 Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., 1837, Ser. 1, i, p. 585. 



6 Arm. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1842, Ser. 1, x, p. 265. 

 ? J. A. S. B., 1846, xv, p. 139. 



8 Illustr. Ind. Zool,, Vol. i, PI. Xi. 



9 J. A. S. B., 1865, xxxiv, Pt. 2, p. 193. 



10 Eastern Persia, ii, p. 59. 



11 Abhandl. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1860, p. 143, PI. ii, fig. 1. 



12 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1845, Ser. 1, xv, p. 266. 



13 Zool. Researches, PI. 



