28 ' GUIDE TO THE 
small chamber in which grain (paddy) is occasionally 
stored in considerable quantities. They are very wary, 
and leave their burrows with the greatest circumspection, 
when these are in exposed situations. The mouth of the 
burrow is indicated by a heap of earth, and if a fresh 
heap is quietly watched, the head of the animal may 
be seen appearing through it, pushing and tossing out 
the newly excavated earth with its nose. They live not only 
on grain but on various roots, and when they appear in great 
numbers in a district, they are very destructive. They do 
not seem to remain always in one place, but rather to 
change their burrows at the different seasons. Their move¬ 
ments are probably influenced by the amount of water they 
meet with in the soil, and observations would lead to the con¬ 
clusion,that they betake themselves to the highest and driest 
areas during the rains. In some years, the Zoological 
Gardens are tolerably free of them, but in others they so 
swarm, that special means have to be taken for their des¬ 
truction. The large species, M. bandicota , attains to the 
size of a rabbit or nearly so. These animals do not 
confine their raids to fields, but at night enter houses in 
quest of food. 
Two other kinds of rats occur in the Gardens in a wild 
state; 1st, the common tree-rat, a beautiful creature with 
a fawn-coloured coat, and a rich yellowish-white under 
surface; this is Mus alexandrimis, var. rufescens, and 
which has been considered to be only a variety of the 
common white-bellied rat of Egypt, Mus alexandrimis ; 
and second, the common grey rat of Europe, Mus 
decumanus , to which Nesokia bengalensis has such a strong 
external resemblance. 
In the Gardens there are always to be found a number 
