1062 J0UR:SAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Tot. XXVIII. 
RemarJiS. — The rediscovery of this species, described so long ago 
by Hodgson, is one of the most interesting results obtained by the 
Mammal iSurvey in Nepal. Hodgson in describing rattoides called 
it the “ Black Rat of Nepal ” and stated it to be “ as similar to the 
Black Rat of Europe as the foregoing {bninneus and hrunncuscidus^ 
is to our brown rat.” His very brief description is as follows : — 
“ Above dusky or blackish brown, below dusky hoary. Limbs, 
dark ; fingers, pale ; tail decidedly longer than the body and head. 
Long piles sufficiently numerous ; weight 5 — 7 oz.” This (apart from 
the measurements t), as far as it goes, so accurately fits both Hodgson’s 
co-types (hitherto imperfectly labelled! and the material recently 
collected for the Mammal Survey that I have no hestitation in identi- 
fying the present species with “ Mus rattoides ” an identification con- 
firmed by comparison with the original coloured drawing in the 
Library of the Zoological Society (Hodgson, MS. Vol. 1, p. 197, Fig. 2). 
Comparison shows further that the specimens collected by the 
Mammal Survey in Sikkim, which v,ere referred to “ Epimys 
vicerex ” by Wroughton (J. B. N. H. S. xxiv, p. 489) “ with some 
hestitation,” because “ the characteristic white belly and bicoloured 
tail are much less marked than in true vicerex and even than in our 
Kuinaon specimens,” agree so closely with those from Nepal that they 
too must be referred to rattoides. 
There can be no doubt that rattoides, vicerex and turhestanicus are 
all closely related to each other ; and it may prove hereafter that all 
three represent merely sub-specific forms of a single species for which 
the name rattoides, as being by far the oldest name, must be used. 
In the present state of our knowledge it is better, however, to regard 
them as distinct species. It is to be hoped that members of the 
Society residing in Simla and in North-Western India will endeavour 
to collect a good series of the rats of this group, easily recognisable, 
in the region specified, by the conspicuously bicoloured tail ; for the 
material at present existing in the National Collection is wholly in- 
sufiicient for the purpose of determining the true status of R. vicerex. 
Our present knowledge may be summed up in a few words. R. 
rattoides of Nepal and Sikkim makes a nearer approach in external 
characters to R. rattiis, but departs further from the latter species in 
skull structure ; while exactly converse statements apply to R. vicerex 
from Simla and districts to the north-west of that station. The 
specimens collected in Kumaon by the Survey are of a somewhat 
intermediate character, having an external appearance something 
like that of rattoides, coupled with a skull more like that of vicerex. 
t Hodgson’s measurements are : Head and body, 7«" ; tail, 8J" ; hindfoot, IJ" ; 
ear> : which equal 198-230-40-23. The head and body and hindfoot measurements 
are too large, for, as is the case with other species, they were taken in a manner 
different from that now' in vogue. 
