10 
AUDY & HARRISON 
Callosciurus caniceps (in the north) and C. notatus (in the south) which are abundant in village 
fruit trees and are even to be found in the gardens of town houses; and the Palm Civet 
Paradoxurus hermaphroditus (Malay “musang”), which is abundant in cultivated areas and 
even lives in the roof spaces of town houses as a rat predator. 
Many of the animals which occur on cleared land, however, do not seem to be native to the 
forest. If they occur in forest at all it is in small numbers obviously associated with man’s 
interference. Examples are the House Rat Rattus rattus diardii , the House Mouse Mus 
musculns , and the House Shrew Suncus murinus, all of which occur in or near houses, whether 
in town or village, and the Ricefield Rat (. Rattus rattus argentiventer) which seems to be confined 
to areas of rice or of Imperata- grass, neither of which habitats can be considered natural ones. 
Presumably all these animals were introduced with man from outside Malaya. Rather more 
difficult to define is the position of the semi-domestic rats, Rattus rattus jalorensis and Rattus 
exulans. Both of these are abundant in areas of scrub and wasteland. R. exulans may invade 
houses, and R. r. jalorensis may become a major pest of such crops as Oil-Palm. Both may be 
found in secondary forest (unlike the more domestic pests) but their distribution leads one to 
suspect that they are of comparatively recent introduction, exploiting the areas of scrub created 
by man, and not fully at home in the native forest, although there seems to be no reason why 
they should not five there. 
The species and groups of host animals which have been examined are set out in table 2 
together with a tabulated summary of the numbers collected from each of the principal collecting 
areas. For the purpose of this summary “Town” comprises Kuala Lumpur as trapped by the 
municipal rat-catchers together with certain areas of wasteland and gardens which are actually 
in the town among the buildings. “Wasteland” includes both “Wasteland around Kuala 
Lumpur” and “Villages around Kuala Lumpur,” since it is often difficult to decide precisely to 
which class a particular specimen should be allotted. The collection from “Oil Palm Estate” is 
also included in“ Wasteland” except that the numbers of the dominant R. r. jalorensis are shown 
separately. “Forest” comprises all the forest collecting localities, and it must be remembered 
that in addition to primary forest, both disturbed and undisturbed, areas of secondary forest 
and of the Aborigines’ gardens ( ladangs ) are included. 
The principal host species recorded are : 
RODENTS. 
Squirrels. 
Callosciurus caniceps (Gray) and notatus (Boddaert). These two squirrels are abundant in 
the understorey layer of forest and secondary forest, and come down to ground level freely. 
They range into scrub and cultivated country, and are well known in the gardens of town houses. 
C. nigrovittatus (Horsfield) is more abundant than the last two in similar conditions in 
forest, but does not enter scrub. 
C. tenuis (Horsfield) is a smaller squirrel than the others. It enters secondary forest but is 
not abundant there. 
C. lowii (Thomas). Unlike the preceding species, this small squirrel seems to frequent 
the ground rather than the trees. It is confined to forest and is uncommon in our collection. 
Lariscus insignis (Cuvier) and Rhinosciurus laticaudatus (Miiller and Schlegel) are apparently 
entirely ground dwelling species. They occur in forest but are rare in our collections. The 
latter species is entirely insectivorous. 
In addition to the squirrels included in the table, specimens of the following species have 
been examined, but in numbers too small to be worthy of inclusion : C. hippurus , a forest tree 
STUD. INST. MED. RES. 
