MAMMALIA. 
47 
result of showing that the number of species is considerably larger than it was supposed to 
be by Blyth 1 and Jerdon. 3 The former considered the various animals described as Mus 
indicus by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 3 Mus (. Neotoma) providers by W. Elliot, 4 Mus kok, 5 Mus 
hardwickei , and Nesokia hardwickei , 6 by Hr. Gray, Mus huttoni , 7 by himself, and some other 
described forms, all to belong to one species, which he called Nesokia indica, and to which 
he referred the Arvicola indica of Gray and Hardwicke. 8 He was also disposed to believe that 
some of the numerous names given by Mr. Hodgson to the various species of rats and mice 
inhabiting Nepal would be found to belong to the same animal. In some notes subsequently 
published, 9 after examining the types in the British Museum, Mr. Blyth recognised the dis¬ 
tinctness of N. hardwickei. 
Dr. Jerdon separated the “short-tailed mole rat” of the North-West Provinces, an animal 
which he identified with Gray’s Nesokia hardwickei , from the longer tailed Nesokia of 
Bengal and Southern India, and indicated the existence of at least one additional species. I 
subsequently 10 gave reasons for distinguishing N. huttoni of Baluchistan and Kdndahar from 
N. hardwickei. I may add that with a much increased knowledge of N. hardwickei I doubt 
whether the differences I then mentioned are constant. 
It should be added that Prof. Peters of Berlin, in 1860, gave an excellent description of 
Nesokia hardwickei, with figures of the skull, under the supposition that the genus and 
species were undescribed, and he called it Spalacomys indica. 11 
Dr. Anderson, in his recent paper, considers Nesokia a subgenus of Mus, and refers to it, 
besides the mole-rats of Jerdon, the bandicoot, Mus bandicota v. giganteus, and an allied species, 
M. elliotanus, previously unnamed, unless it prove, as is not improbable, to be M. nemori- 
vagus 12 of Hodgson or the true M. setifer 13 of Horsfield. The species referred to the subgenus 
are classed by Dr. Anderson in three sections,—one, the typical group containing the original 
type of the genus, N. hardwickei, and its allies N. huttoni and N scultyi; a second section 
comprising the N. indica of Blyth and Jerdon, which Dr. Anderson renames N. bly thiana ,and 
from which he separates N. providers of Elliot, and another species which he calls A. bar- 
clay ana ; and the bandicoot group, N. giganteus and N. elliotanus. He shews that the Mus 
indicus of Geoffroy St. Hilaire was not a Nesokia, and he considers that Armcola indica was 
the same as Mus hardwickei, consequently the Nesokia indica of Blyth and Jerdon requires 
another specific name. He refers the Kashmir species to N barclayana. 
The differences between the two more important sections of the genus or subgenus are 
the following: the bandicoots, forming the third section, do not extend into the countries with 
which the present work is concerned, and their title to be classed in the genus Nesokia is open 
to some doubt, they being, in fact, intermediate in characters between Nesokia and Mus. In 
1 J. A. S. B., 1863, xxxii, pp. 328—333. 
2 Mam. Ind., pp. 187, 190. 
3 Desmarest, Mam., p. 299. 
4 Mad. Jour. Lit. Sci., x, p. 209. 
5 Charlesworth’s Mag. Nat. Hist., 1837, Ser. 1, i, p. 585. 
6 Ann. Mae. Nat. Hist., 1842, Ser. 1, x, p. 265. 
7 J. A. S. B., 1846, xv, p. 139. 
8 Illustr. Ind. Zool„ Vol. i, PL Xi. 
9 J. A. S. B., 1865, xxxiv, Pt. 2, p. 193. 
10 Eastern Persia, ii, p. 59. 
11 Abliandl. K. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1860, p, 143, PI. ii, fig, 1, 
12 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 1845, Ser. 1, xv, p. 266. 
13 Zool. Researches, PI. 
