1056 
SCIENTIFIC RESULTS FROM THE MAMMAL SURVEY. 
No. XXXIV. 
THE HOUSE RATS OF NEPAL. 
By 
Martin A. C. Hinton. 
{Published by 'permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 
A large part of the historic Hodgson collection forms one of the 
principal treasures in the National Collection of mammals. But 
hitherto this material, which should always have been one of our chief 
guides to Himalayan mammalogy, has, to a large extent, constituted 
merely a stumbling block in the way of the student. Unfortunately 
Hodgson rarely labelled his specimens in English ; and early curators, 
impressed with Hodgson’s long association with Nepal, were too 
prone to assume that all his specimens came from that country unless 
some other locality was specifically stated. But Hodgson collected 
from many sources, such as Kashmir, Sikkim and Tibet, besides 
Nepal. The confusion which such imperfect labelling introduced may 
be imagined ; the result of it was that for many years the Hodgson 
material was deprived of its real scientific value. When preparing 
my report on the Indian House Rats for this Society some years ago, 
I found it impossible to deal satisfactorily with the Hodgson material 
and with great reluctance I had to brush it almost wholly aside. 
Two recent events have enabled us to rehabilitate this Collection to 
a considerable extent. In the first place the authorities of the 
Zoological Society of London have lent us the original notes and draw- 
ings made by Hodgson so that we are able to collate them with the 
specimens on which they were based. By this means it has been 
found possible to ascertain the exact localities of many specimens of 
which the real provenance was previously unknown and to identify 
a good many of Hodgson’s co-types. Secondly, large collections have 
been made in Nepal for the Mammal Survey by Lt.-Col. Kemiion and 
this Society’s collector N. A. Baptista. With this modern material 
it is possible to form opinions as to the status of the Nepalese forms, 
which, in many cases, could not be based satisfactorily upon the 
scanty and often imperfect typical specimens. 
A general report upon the Nepal collections will appear shortly 
in this Journal. The present paper is intended to clear up some of 
the questions relating to the status and relationships of that most 
difficult group, the House Rats of Nepal. As is well knorvn Hodgson 
asserted these animals to be distinguishable from those of neighbouring 
countries, e.g., Sikkim, and he bestowed names upon several forms. 
He was a most acute and energetic observer, with views for the most 
