Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon Part 61

HABITAT.--The Andaman and Nicobar islands.

DESCRIPTION.--A little darker on the back than _Mus dec.u.ma.n.u.s_, paler on the sides, and dull white below. "The long piles are at once distinguished by their flattened spinous character, which is also slightly the case in _M. rattus_, though much less conspicuously than in the present species. It would appear to be a burrower in the ground" (_Blyth_). Ears round as in the brown rat.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 8 inches; tail the same.

NO. 335. MUS ROBUSTULUS.

_The Burmese Common Rat_.

HABITAT.--British Burmah.

DESCRIPTION.--Dark-brown above, under-parts whitish, stoutly formed, with tail not quite so long as head and body; feet conspicuously white.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 6 inches; tail, a little shorter.

Mr. Mason remarks of this rat that they are only second to the white ants for the mischief they perpetrate. "They burrow in the gardens, and destroy the sweet potatoes; they make their nests in the roofs by day, and visit our houses and larders by night. They will eat into teak drawers, boxes, and book-cases, and can go up and down anything but gla.s.s. In the province of Tonghoo they sometimes appear in immense numbers before harvest, and devour the paddy like locusts.

In both 1857 and 1858 the Karens on the mountains west of the city lost all their crops from this pest." They seem to migrate in swarms, and cross rivers by swimming. Mr. Cross captured one out of a pair he observed swimming the Tena.s.serim river at a place where it is more than a quarter of a mile wide. _M. Berdmorei_ is the same as this species.

The following three are Burmese rats collected by Dr. Anderson during the Yunnan Expedition, and are new species named by him:--

NO. 336. MUS SLADENI.

_Sladen's Rat_.

HABITAT.--Kakhyen hills; Ponsee at 3500 feet.

DESCRIPTION.--Head rather elongated; snout somewhat elongate; muzzle rather deep; ears large and rounded, spa.r.s.ely clad with short hairs; feet well developed, hinder ones rather strong; claws moderately long and sharp; the feet pads markedly developed, indicating an arboreal habit of life; tail slightly exceeding length of head and body, coa.r.s.ely ringed, there being three rings to each one-tenth of an inch; the hairs spa.r.s.e and brown; general colour of upper surface reddish-brown, more rufous than brownish, palest on the head, many hairs with broad yellow tips; cheeks greyish-rufous; chin, throat, and chest whitish, also the remaining under-parts, but with a tinge of yellowish; ears and tail pale brownish. (Abridged from Anderson's 'Anat. and Zool. Res.' p. 305.)

SIZE.--Head and body of one, about 6.30 inches; tail, 7.20 inches.

Dr. Anderson says this species is closely allied to Hodgson's _Mus nitidus_, but its skull is less elongated, with a shorter facial portion, with very much shorter nasals, and with a more abruptly defined frontal contraction than either in _M. nitidus_ or _M.

rufescens_ so called. He adds that this appears to be both a tree and a house rat.

NO. 337. MUS RUBRICOSA.

_The Small Red Rat of the Kakhyen Hills_.

HABITAT.--Kakhyen hills and the Burma-Chinese frontier at Ponsee, and in the houses of the Shan Chinese at Hotha.

DESCRIPTION.--"Snout moderately pointed and long; ears small, and somewhat pointed; hind foot long and narrow; claws moderately long, compressed and sharply pointed; upper surface dark rusty brown, darkest on the middle and back, and palest on the muzzle, head and shoulder; on the sides and lower part of shoulder the reddish brown tends to pa.s.s into greyish; feet greyish; the sides of the snout greyish; all the under-parts silvery grey tending to white, without any trace of rufous, or but with a very faint yellowish blush; the tail, dull brown, is somewhat shorter than the body and head, and it is coa.r.s.ely ringed, 2-1/2 rings to one-tenth of an inch, the hair being short, spa.r.s.e, and dark brown" ('Anat. and Zool. Res.' p. 306).

SIZE.--Head and body, 5.70 inches; tail, 5.15 inches.

NO. 338. MUS YUNNANENSIS.

_The Common House Rat of Yunnan_.

HABITAT.--Yunnan, at Ponsee; Hotha and Teng-yue-chow.

DESCRIPTION.--"Muzzle rather short and broad; ear large and rounded, its height considerably exceeding the distance between the inner canthus and the front of the muzzle, spa.r.s.ely clad with short hairs; feet well developed; hind foot moderately long; pads prominent; claws compressed, strong, curved, and sharp; tail coa.r.s.ely ringed, three rings to one-tenth of an inch; upper surface dark rich brown, with intermixed pale hairs, with broad brown tips, the sides of the face below the moustachial area, chin, throat, and all the under-parts yellowish washed with rufous; the ears and tail dusky brown; feet pale yellowish, and more or less brownish above; the tail varies in length, but is generally longer than the body and head, although it may occasionally fall short of that length" ('Anat. and Zool. Res.' pp, 306, 307).

SIZE.--Head and body, 5.70 inches; tail, 5.65 inches. An adult female had a much longer tail.

NO. 339. MUS INFRALINEATUS.

_The Striped-bellied Rat_ (_Jerdon's No. 178_).

HABITAT.--Madras; Bustar forests.

DESCRIPTION.--"Above, the fur fulvous, with the shorter hairs lead coloured; throat, breast, and belly pure white, with a central pale fulvous brown streak; tail slightly hairy."--_Jerdon_.

SIZE.--Head and body, 5-1/2 inches; tail, not quite 5 inches; another about 5 inches; tail, 4-1/4 inches.

Jerdon calls this a field rat in his popular name for it, but I think that the term should be restricted to the _Nesokia_ or true field and earth-burrowing rats. He is of opinion that Gray's _Mus fulvescens_ from Nepal is the same, the description tallying to some extent, concluding with: "in one specimen a central yellow streak,"

i.e. on the belly.

NO. 340. MUS BRUNNEUS.

_The Tree Rat_ (_Jerdon's. No. 179_).

HABITAT.--India and Ceylon. The common house rat of Nepal.

DESCRIPTION.--Above rusty brown; below rusty, more or less albescent; extremities pale, almost flesh-coloured; ears rather long; head rather elongated; tail equal to and sometimes exceeding head and body.

SIZE.--Head and body, from 8-1/2 to 9-1/2 inches; tail, from 9 to 9-1/2 inches.

Jerdon states that this rat, which Dr. Gray considered identical with _M. dec.u.ma.n.u.s_ (_see_ 'Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.' vol. xv. 1845, p.

267), "is to be found throughout India, not habitually living in holes, but coming into houses at night; and, as Blyth remarks, often found resting during the day on the _jhil-mil_ or venetian blinds.

It makes a nest in mango-trees or in thick bushes and hedges. Hodgson calls it the common house rat of Nepal, and Kellaart also calls it the small house rat of Trincomalee." It is probable that this is the rat which used to trouble me much on the outskirts of the station of Nagpore. It used to come in at night, evidently from outside, for the house was not one in which even a mouse could have got shelter, with masonry roof, and floors paved with stone flags. Kellaart evidently considered it as distinct from _M. dec.u.ma.n.u.s_, which he stated to be rare in houses in the town of Trincomalee, though abundant in the dockyard.

NO. 341. MUS RUFESCENS.

_The Rufescent Tree Rat_ (_Jerdon's No. 180_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Gachua-indur_, Bengali; _Ghas-meeyo_, Singhalese.

HABITAT.--India generally; Ceylon.

DESCRIPTION.--Fur above pale yellowish-brown; under fur lead coloured, mixed with longer piles of stiff, broad, plumbeous black tipped hairs; head long; muzzle narrow; whiskers long and black; ears large, subovate, slightly clad with fine hairs; eyes large; incisor teeth yellow; feet brownish above, but the sides and toes are whitish; tail longer than head and body.

SIZE.--Head and body, from 5-1/2 to 7-1/2 inches; tail from 6-1/2 to 8-1/2 inches.

This is _M. flavescens_ of Elliot, and is so noticed in Kellaart's 'Prodromus.' He calls it "the white-bellied tree-rat of Ceylon," and he states that it lives on trees or in the ceiling of houses in preference to the lower parts. Sir Walter Elliot observed it chiefly in stables and out-houses at Dharwar. According to Buchanan-Hamilton it makes its nests in cocoanut-trees and bamboos, bringing forth five or six young in August and September. "They eat grains, which they collect in their nests, also young cocoanuts. They enter houses at night, but do not live there." Kellaart's _M. tetragonurus_ is a variety of this, if not identical.

NO. 342. MUS NIVEIVENTER.