1839] 



in the Southern Mahratta Country. 



213 



cutting off the ear to devour the grain with greater facility. I saw 

 many whole fields completely devastated, so much, so, as to prevent 

 the farmers from paying their rents. The ryots employed the Wuddurs 

 to destroy them, who killed them by thousands, receiving a measure 

 of grain for so many dozens, without perceptibly diminishing their 

 numbers. 



Their flesh is eaten by the Tar^k-diggers. The female produces 

 from 6 to 8 at a birth. 



36.~Mus Hirsutus. — New species. 



Gulandi ~\ Canarese .... r*?oG>oa 



or V of < 



Gulatyelka) the Wuddurs.... (a&e>33kex>3\ 



The Gulandi is about the size of the last species, or a little larger— 

 but differs from it in living entirely above ground, in a habitation con- 

 structed of grass and leaves, generally in the root of a bush at no great 

 height from the ground, often indeed touching the surface. The head 

 is longer than that of the Mettade, but the muzzle is blunt, rounded, 

 and more obtuse, and covered with rough hair. The face and cheeks 

 are also rougher than those of the other rats ; the ears round and 

 villose ; the eyes moderate ; the whiskers long and very fine. The 

 tail naked and scaly, somewhat villose. The colour is an olive-brown 

 above, mixed with fulvous ; beneath yellowish tawny ; sometimes 

 paler, or light yellowish grey. 



A male Gulandi measured : — length of body, 6 T 8 ^th; of tail, 4 T 3 ^th; 

 total 10 T 5 _th: of head, l T yh; of ear, 0 T \th. Weight nearly 3 oz. 



The Gulandi lives entirely in the jungle, choosing its habitation in a 

 thick bush, among the thorny branches of which, or on the ground, it 

 constructs a nest of elastic stalks and fibres of dry grass, thickly inter • 

 woven. The nest is of a round or oblong shape, from 6 to 9 inches in 

 diameter, within which is a chamber about 3 or 4 inches in diameter, 

 in which it rolls itself up. Round and through the bush are sometimes 

 observed small beaten pathways, along which the little animal seems 

 habitually to pass. Its motion is somewhat slow, and it does not appear 

 to have the same power of leaping or springing, by which the rats in 

 general avoid danger. Its food seems to be vegetable, the only contents 

 of the stomach that were observed being the roots of the huryalee grass. 

 Its habits are solitary (except when the female is bringing up her 

 young), and diurnal, feeding during the mornings and evenings. 



