"210 



Catalogue of Mammalia 



[Oct, 



long as the body, whiskers long and full. Fur long and somewhat 

 harsh, brown mixed with fawn, the short fur softer and dusky. The 

 colour generally being something like that of the brown rat, with more 

 fawn or red intermixed, and lighter beneath. 



In its habits it is solitary, fierce, living secluded in spacious burrows, 

 in which it stores up large quantifies of grain during the harvest, and 

 when that is consumed lives upo f , N the hurt/alee grass and other roots. 



The female produces from 8 to 10 at a birth, which she sends out 

 of her burrow as soon as able to provide for themselves. When irri- 

 tated, it utters a low grunting cry, like the bandicoot. Incisors entirely 

 of an orange yellow colour. 



The dimensions of an old male were as follows : — length of body 7 

 inches; of tail §§ ; total 13| : of head 1 T \ ; of ear T \ths ; of fore 

 palm _* ths ; of hind I_t_ths. "Weight 6 oz. 5 drs. 



* 1 0 7 10 ° 



The race of people known by the name of Wuddnrs, or tank-diggers, 

 capture this animal in great numbers as an article of food ; and during the 

 harvest, they plunder their earths of the grain stored up for their winter 

 consumption, w T hich, in fivourable localities, they find in such quantities, 

 as to subsist almost entirely upon it, during that season of the year. A 

 single butrow will sometimes yield as much as half a seer (about a lb) 

 of grain, containing even whole ears of jowaree -(Holcus sorghum). 

 The Kok abound in the richly cultivated black plains or cotton ground, 

 but the heavy rains often inundate their earths, destroy their stores and 

 force them to seek a new habitation. I dug up a winter burrow in August 

 1833, situated near the old one, which was deserted from this cause. 

 The animal had left the level ground, and constructed its new habitation 

 in the sloping bank of an old well. The entrance was covered with a 

 mound of earth like a mole-hill, on removing which, the main shaft of 

 the burrow was followed along the side of the grassy bank, at a depth 

 of about 1 or 1^ foot. From this, a descending branch went still deep- 

 er to a small round chamber, lined with roots and just large enough to 

 contain the animal. From the chamber a small gallery ran quite round it, 

 terminating on either side in the main shaft at the entrance of the cham- 

 ber; and the passage then continued down to the boitom of the bank, 

 and opened into the plain, Near the upper entrance, and above the 

 passage to the chamber, was another small branch, which terminated 

 suddenly, and contained excrement. But these burrows are by no means 

 on a uniform plan. Another occupied by an adult female w r as likewise 

 examined in the same "neighbourhood. It was much more extensive, 

 and covered a space of about 15 feet in length by about 8 in breadth, al-» 

 "i in a grassy mound, of which it occupied both sides. Six entrances 



