Chapter 36

"In one earth which I opened, and which did not seem to have been originally constructed by the animal, I found two pairs, one of which were adults, the other young ones about three-parts grown. The mouth of the earth was very large, and completely blocked up with small stones; the passage gradually widening into a large cavity, from the roof of which some other passages appeared to proceed, but there was only one communication with the surface, viz. the entrance. The old pair were seated on a bed of pebbles, near which, on a higher level, was another collection of stones probably intended for a drier retreat; the young ones were in one of the passages, likewise furnished with a heap of small stones."

Dr. Jerdon adds he has often opened the burrows of this mouse, and can confirm the above account. He also states that the Yanadees of Nellore declare that one variety uses small sticks instead of stones to sit upon, and they give it a distinct appellation, but he could not detect any difference in the specimens they brought him.

NO. 375. LEGGADA SPINULOSA. _The Dusky Spiny Mouse_ (_Jerdon's No. 195_).

HABITAT.--Punjab, and also Southern India.

DESCRIPTION.--"Nearly affined to _M. platythrix_ (Sykes), but of a dark dusky colour above, with fulvous tips to the softer fur; below and all the feet dull whitish; upper rodential tusks orange, the lower white; whiskers long and fine, the posterior and longer of them black for the basal half or more, the rest white."--_Blyth_, 'J. A. S. B.' 1863.

SIZE.--Head and body, 3-3/4 inches; tail, 3 inches.

NO. 376. LEGGADA JERDONI. _The Himalayan Spiny Mouse_ (_Jerdon's No. 196_).

HABITAT.--Himalayan range, up to 12,000 feet.

DESCRIPTION.--"Bright dark ferruginous above, pure white below; some fine long black tips intermingled among the spines of the back; limbs marked with blackish externally; the feet white."--_Blyth's_ 'Mem., J. A. S. B.' vol. xxxii.

SIZE.--Head and body, 4 inches; tail, 3-1/2 inches.

Dr. Jerdon first found this mouse at Darjeeling, but afterwards in the valley of the Sutlej in Kunawur, at an elevation of nearly 12,000 feet, living under large stones.

NO. 377. LEGGADA LEPIDA. _The Small Spiny Mouse_ (_Jerdon's No. 197_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Chitta-burkani_, _Chit-yelka_, _Chitta-ganda_, Telegu of Wuddurs; _Chitta-yelka_ of Yanadees.--_Jerdon_.

HABITAT.--Southern India.

DESCRIPTION.--Similar to _L. platythrix_, but smaller and more weakly spinous; above pale sandy brown, pure white below, the two colours clearly separated. "The spines are small, fine, transparent, and of a dusky tinge, tipped with fawn; head very long; muzzle pointed; ears large, ovate, naked; tail naked, limbs rather long, fine."--_Jerdon_.

SIZE.--Head and body, 2-1/2 to 3 inches; tail, 2-3/4 inches.

Jerdon says of this mouse that he has found it in gravelly soil in gardens and woods in most parts of Southern India making a small burrow, which generally has a little heap of stones placed at a short distance from the hole. It is preyed on now and then by the common Indian roller or jay, and it is very generally used as a bait to catch that bird with bird-lime.

_GENUS GOLUNDA_.

The following rats are separated by Gray as a distinct genus, which from the Canarese name of the type he has called _Golunda_, the characteristics of which are: "the grinders, when perfect, low, with a broad, flat crown; the cross ridges of the crown of the upper grinders divided into three distinct slightly raised tubercles; upper incisors grooved; rest like _Mus_."

NO. 378. GOLUNDA ELLIOTI. _The Bush Rat or Coffee Rat_ (_Jerdon's No. 199_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Gulandi_, Canarese; _Gulat-yelka_ of Wuddurs; _Sora-panji-gadur_, Telegu of Yanadees; _Cofee-wattee-meeyo_, Singhalese (this name seems to me a corruption of "coffee rat").

DESCRIPTION.--Fur thick and stiff, fulvous brown, mixed with black, some olive brown mixed with fulvous, tawny grey beneath; hairs of upper parts flattened, ashy grey, tipped yellow, with some thinner and longer ones, also tipped yellow, with sub-terminal black band; under fur soft and of a light lead colour; face and cheeks rough; ears moderate, sub-ovate, hairy; tail round, tapering, scaly and hairy, dark brown above, yellowish below; cutting teeth yellow.

SIZE.--Head and body, 4-1/2 inches; tail, 4 inches.

Dr. Kellaart says these are the rats most destructive to coffee-trees, whole plantations being sometimes deprived of buds and blossoms by them.

There is an illustration of one in Sir Emerson Tennent's 'Natural History of Ceylon' in the act of cutting off the slender branches which would not bear its weight in order to feed on the buds and blossoms when fallen to the ground. "The twigs thus destroyed are detached by as clean a cut as if severed with a knife." Sir Walter Elliot writes of it: "The _gulandi_ lives entirely in the jungle, choosing its habitation in a thick bush, among the thorny branches of which, or on the ground, it constructs a nest of elastic stalks and fibres of dry grass thickly interwoven. The nest is of a round or oblong shape, from six to nine inches in diameter, within which is a chamber about three or four inches in diameter, in which it rolls itself up. Round and through the bush are sometimes observed small beaten pathways along which the little animal seems habitually to pass. Its motion is somewhat slow, and it does not appear to have the same power of leaping or springing by which the rats in general avoid danger. Its food seems to be vegetable, the only contents of the stomach being the roots of the haryalee grass. Its habits are solitary (except when the female is bringing up her young) and diurnal, feeding in the mornings and evenings." Dr. Jerdon says: "The Yanadees of Nellore catch this rat, surrounding the bush and seizing it as it issues forth, which its comparatively slow actions enable them to do easily. According to Sir Emerson Tennent the Malabar coolies are so fond of their flesh that they evince a preference for those districts in which the coffee-plantations are subject to their incursions, where they fry the rats in cocoanut-oil or convert them into curry." Both he and Dr. Kellaart mention the migratory habits of this animal on the occurrence of a scarcity of food. Kellaart says that in one day on such visits more than a thousand have been killed on one estate alone.

NO. 379. GOLUNDA MELTADA. _The Soft-furred Bush Rat_ (_Jerdon's No. 200_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Mettade_, of Wuddurs; _Metta-yelka_, Telegu of Yanadees; _Kera ilei_, Canarese.

HABITAT.--Southern India and Ceylon.

DESCRIPTION.--Fur very soft; above deep yellowish, olive brown or reddish-brown, with a mixture of fawn; under fur lead colour; chin and under parts whitish; head short; muzzle sharp; ears long and hairy; tail shorter than body, scaly, but scales covered with short black adpressed hairs; feet pale.

SIZE.--Head and body, 3-1/2 to 5-1/2 inches; tail, 2-1/4 to 4-1/4 inches.

The specific name of this rat is an absurd corruption, such as is not unfrequent in Dr. Gray's names, of the native _mettade_, which means soft. According to that accurate observer Sir Walter Elliot, "the _mettade_ lives entirely in cultivated fields in pairs or small societies of five or six;[25] making a very slight and rude hole in the root of a bush, or merely harbouring among the heap of stones thrown together in the fields, in the deserted burrow of the _kok_,[26] or contenting itself with the deep cracks and fissures formed in the black soil during the hot months. Great numbers perish annually when these collapse and fill up at the commencement of the rains. The monsoon of 1826 having been deficient in the usual fall of rain at the commencement of the season, the _mettades_ bred in such numbers as to become a perfect plague. They ate up the seed as soon as sown, and continued their ravages when the grain approached to maturity, climbing up the stalks of jowaree and cutting off the ear to devour the grain with greater facility. I saw many whole fields completely devastated, so much so as to prevent the farmers from paying their rents. The ryots employed the Wuddurs to destroy them, who killed them by thousands, receiving a measure of grain for so many dozens, without perceptibly diminishing their numbers. Their flesh is eaten by the Tank-diggers. The female produces six to eight at a birth."--'_Madras Journ. Lit. Sc._' x. 1839.

[Footnote 25: In this case probably parents and young.]

[Footnote 26: _Nesokia providens_.]

Kellaart's _Golunda Newera_ is, I fancy, the same, although the measurement he gives is less. Head and body, 3-1/4 inches; tail, 2-1/2. The description tallies, although Kellaart goes upon difference in size and the omission of Gray to state that _G. meltada_ had the upper incisors grooved. He says that "this rat is found in pairs in the black soil of Newara Elia, and is a great destroyer of peas and potatoes." So its habits agree.

_GENUS HAPALOMYS_.

This was formed by Blyth on a specimen from Burmah of a murine animal "with a long and delicately fine pelage and exceedingly long tail, the terminal fourth of which is remarkably flattened and furnished with hair more developed than in perhaps any other truly murine form; limbs short, with the toes remarkably corrugated underneath; the balls of the inguinal phalanges greatly developed, protruding beyond the minute claws of the fore-feet, and equally with the more developed claws of the hind-feet; head short; the ears small and inconspicuous; the skull approaches in form that of _Mus Indicus_,[27] but the rodential tusks are broader and flatter to the front. Molars as in the _Muridae_ generally, but much worn in the specimen under examination; they are considerably less directed outward than usual, and the bony palate has therefore the appearance of being narrow; the superorbital ridges project much outward in form of a thin bony plate, and there is a considerable process at the base of the zygoma anteriorly and posteriorly to the anti-orbital foramen; zygomata broad, and compressed about the middle."

[Footnote 27: _Nesokia Blythiana_.]

NO. 380. HAPALOMYS LONGICAUDATUS.

HABITAT.--Shway Gheen, in the valley of the Sitang river in Burmah, or its adjacent hills.

DESCRIPTION.--"Fur long and soft, measuring about five-eights of an inch on the upper parts, slaty for the basal two-thirds, then glistening brown with black tips, and a few long hairs of very fine texture interspersed; lower parts dull white; whiskers black, long and fine, and there is a tuft of fine blackish-hair anterior to the ears."--_Blyth_.

SIZE.--Head and body of a male, 5-3/4 inches; tail 7-1/4 inches. Of another specimen, female: 5-1/4 inches; tail, 7-1/2 inches; sole, 1-1/8 inch; ears posteriorly, 1-1/4 inch.

Specimens of adult male and female with a young one were forwarded to the Asiatic Society's Museum by Major Berdmore.

* * * * *

We have now come to the end of the purely murine group as far as they exist within the limits assigned to these investigations. I ought perhaps to give some short notices of the following specimens discovered in Thibet by the Abbe David, and described by Professor Milne-Edwards in his 'Recherches sur les Mammiferes.'

NO. 381. MUS OUANG-THOMAE. _The Kiangsi Rat_.

HABITAT.--Kiangsi in Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--A tawny grey above, mixed with long hairs, tipped with brown, greyish below; between the fore-paws a crescent of pure white, which is a distinguishing mark of the species.

SIZE.--A little less than _Mus rattus_, which is about seven inches long; tail an inch longer.

This rat Professor Milne-Edwards describes from a single specimen; it is apparently rare, and was named after the Abbe David's Chinese servant--'Recherches sur les Mammiferes,' p. 290.

NO. 382. MUS FLAVIPECTUS. _The Yellow-breasted Rat_.

HABITAT.--Moupin; Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Reddish-brown; chin greyish; throat and chest tawny, mixed with grey; belly and inside of limbs yellowish-grey; ears large, nearly naked; incisors deep yellow; tail brown, covered with short hairs.

SIZE.--About 7-3/4 inches; tail, 6-1/4 inches.--'Mammiferes,' p. 289.

NO. 383. MUS GRISEIPECTUS. _The Grey-breasted Rat_.

HABITAT.--Moupin; Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Brown above; the under-parts of a clear grey.

SIZE.--About the same as the last, but with a somewhat shorter tail.--'Mammiferes,' p. 290.

NO. 384. MUS CONFUCIANUS.

HABITAT.--Moupin; Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Fawn brown above, pure white below; lower part of cheek white; on the back the fur is interspersed with longer hairs of a blackish tint; feet pale.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 4 inches.--'Mammiferes,' p. 286.

NO. 385. MUS CHEVRIERI.

HABITAT.--Moupin; Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--General colour tawny brown, grizzled with dark brown; lower parts of a clear grey, almost white; ears short; feet small; tail covered with short hair.

SIZE.--About 4-3/4 inches; tail about 3-1/2 inches.--'Mammiferes,' p. 288.

NO. 386. MUS PYGMAEUS. _The Pigmy Mouse_.

HABITAT.--Moupin; Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Distinguished by its very short ears and the square form of its head; deep brown above; greyish-yellow beneath; tail shorter than in the common mouse.

SIZE.--About 2-3/4 inches; tail, about 2 inches.--'Mammiferes,' p. 291.

ARVICOLINAE.

In this sub-family the molars are generally semi-rooted or rootless. The _Arvicolinae_ or Voles consist of the American Musquash (_Fiber zibethicus_), a very beaver-like water rat of large size; the Lemmings (_Myodes_), of which there are several species which are celebrated for their vast migrations; and the true Vole (_Arvicola_), which is the only genus found in India, and then only in the colder climate of the Himalayas. There are several species in Europe, of which three are found in England. According to Professor Dallas, the true Voles number about fifty species, arranged by various writers under a considerable number of sub-genera. In India we have only eight known species, and two more from the adjacent country of Thibet.

The European forms of _Arvicolae_ have been divided by Blasius into four sub-genera of two divisions--the first division having rooted molars in the adult animal--containing one sub-genus only, _Hypudaeus_ of Illiger; the second division consists of three sub-genera with rootless molars, viz. _Paludicola_, _Agricola_, and _Arvicola_, which last has again been subdivided into long-eared and short-eared Voles--_Arvicola_ and _Microtus_--distinguished by the former having eight and the latter four mammae, and respectively six and four tubercles on the plantae, the ears of the latter being almost hidden by the fur.

None of the forms with which we have now to deal belong to the first division, for, as far as the matter has been investigated, the Indian Voles have rootless molars, but the character of the teeth in some differs from the European forms, and therefore Mr. Blanford has proposed a new section, _Alticola_, for their reception. I have not space here, nor would it accord with the popular character of this work, to go minutely into all the variation of dentition which distinguish the different species. To those who wish to continue to the minutest details the study of the Indian Voles, I recommend a most careful and elaborate paper on them by Mr. W. T. Blanford, F.R.S., in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. L., pt. ii.; but without entering into the microscopic particulars of each species, I may here give a general idea of the formation of the teeth of the _Arvicolae_ differing as it does so much from others of the myomorphic or mouse-like group of rodents. In these the general contour of the molar teeth is roundish oblong, the margins being wavy or indented, according to the convolutions of the enamel, but in the Voles there is a sharp angularity about these indentations; the marginal lines, instead of being in well-rounded curves, are sharply zigzag, forming acute angles. If you were to draw two close parallel zigzag lines it would give you some idea of the contour of these teeth. The molars are in fact composed of alternating triangular prisms, with the outer folds of enamel forming deep and acute angles. The other characteristics of this family are: skull, with brain case rhomboidal, frontals much contracted; infra-orbital opening typical; limbs moderate; tail moderate, or short and hairy.

_GENUS ARVICOLA_.

Muzzle blunt; fore-feet small, with short claws; soles naked; tail longer than the hind-foot, clad with short hairs; incisors plain, smooth in front. The fore-feet in some species have but a small wart in place of a thumb; in others there is a small thumb with a minute claw. The hind-feet have five toes.

NO. 387. ARVICOLA STOLICZKANUS. _The Yarkand Vole_.

HABITAT.--Yarkand.

DESCRIPTION.--"Bright ferruginous brown above, pure white beneath; fur soft, rather woolly, 0.5 to 0.6 inch long on the middle of the back, the basal portion throughout both head and body being dark leaden grey; this is the case on the back for about three-quarters of the length of the hairs; the remaining quarter is rufous white, tipped with darker rufous, whilst numerous rather longer hairs are dark rufous-brown at the ends; rather a sharp line divides the rufous of the back from the white belly; upper part of the head the same colour as the back; upper whiskers dark brown, lower, including the longest, white; ears small, rounded, hairy, completely concealed by the fur, with rather short bright rufous hair near the margin inside; and covered outside with longer and paler hair; feet small, the thumb of the fore-foot quite rudimentary and clawless; remaining claws long, compressed, sharply pointed, but much concealed by the long white hairs which cover the upper part of the foot, sales naked; tarsus hairy below, a few hairs between the pads of the toes; tail short, apparently about a quarter the length of the body and head together, covered with stiff fulvescent white hair, which extends about half an inch beyond the end."--_W. T. Blanford_, 'Sc. Res. of Second Yarkand Mission,' p. 43.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 4 inches; tail, with hair, 1-1/2.

NO. 388. ARVICOLA STRACHEYI. _The Kumaon Vole_.

HABITAT.--Kumaon.

DESCRIPTION.--Light brown above, with a greyish tint and dusky forehead; under-parts, feet, and tail white; ears small, not longer than the fur, and thickly clad with hair; feet of moderate size; thumb as in the last; tail short and covered with white hairs.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 3.7 inches; tail; 0.7.

This vole was procured first by Capt. (now Lieut.-Gen.) R. Strachey at Kumaon.

NO. 389. ARVICOLA WYNNEI. _The Murree Vole_.

NATIVE NAME.--_Kannees_.

HABITAT.--Northern Himalayas; Murree.

DESCRIPTION.--Dark brown above, with a slight greyish tinge; head rufescent, and under-parts pale brown; tail dark brown; ears short and rounded, hidden by the fur; fore-feet rather large; thumb small, with a short claw; incisors orange.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 4-3/4 inches; tail 1-1/4 inch.

NO. 390. ARVICOLA ROYLEI. _The Cashmere Vole_ (_Jerdon's No. 202_).

HABITAT.--Kashmir; Kunawur near Chini at 12,000 feet.

DESCRIPTION.--Yellowish-brown, with a rufous tint on the back, paler below; tail brown above, whitish underneath; feet concolorous with the under-part; ears small, hairy and nearly hidden by the fur; incisors yellow in front.

SIZE.--Head and body, 3-3/4 inches; tail, 1-2/12 inch.

Jerdon states he got this vole at Kunawur, near Chini, again on the south side of the Barendo pass, and also in the Pir Punjal.

NO. 391. ARVICOLA BLANFORDI. _The Gilgit Vole_.

HABITAT.--Kashmir territory; Gilgit, at an elevation of 9000 to 10,000 feet.

DESCRIPTION.--Light greyish-brown above, slightly tinged with rufous; greyish-white underneath; fur soft, the basal three-fourths being slaty grey, the rest fawn colour, in some instances with black tips, the hairs of the under-parts being white tipped; ears moderately large, well above the fur, hairy; very long whiskers, chiefly white, a few brown; feet whitish, moderate size; tail cylindrical, not tapering, and well clad with hair, which project about a fifth of an inch beyond the end of the vertebrae.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 4-1/2 inches; tail, 2 inches.

This vole was described by Dr. J. Scully in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' for November, 1880, vol. vi., and he named it after Mr. W. T. Blanford. It is said to be common on the mountains around Gilgit.

* * * * *

The next two species come under the section _Paludicola_.

NO. 392. ARVICOLA BLYTHII.

HABITAT.--Western Thibet, Leh and Ladakh.

DESCRIPTION.--General colour above yellowish-brown, below pale isabelline; fur soft; basal two-thirds of the upper hairs, and one-half of the lower hairs, dark slaty; the upper hairs are tipped, some isabelline and some, which are coarser and longer, dark brown; ears round, small, equal, with the fur thinly clad with pale brown hairs inside, and more thickly so with longer hairs outside; upper whiskers dark brown, lower whitish; feet pale isabelline; soles naked; tail cylindrical, distinctly ringed, covered with short light brown hair like the under-parts in colour.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 3 to 4 inches; tail, 1 to 1-1/4 inch.

Mr. Blanford has written fully regarding this species, which was the type of Blyth's genus _Phaiomys_, in the 'Scientific Results of the Second Yarkand Mission,' page 39, in which he contends, after going through a mass of literature on the subject, that there are no grounds for constituting it the type of a new species; and, if this be conceded, then the specific name given by Blyth, viz. _leucurus_, being forestalled, it is necessary to rename it, which he has done in honour of that well-known naturalist.

NO. 393. ARVICOLA MANDARINUS. _The Afghan Vole_.

HABITAT.--Afghanistan; Chinese Mongolia.

DESCRIPTION.--Light greyish rufescent brown above, white beneath; ears short, hidden by the fur and hairy; feet whitish; tail rufescent brown.

SIZE.--About 4 inches; tail about 1 inch.

This vole, which is described and figured by Milne-Edwards, is supposed to have been found in Afghanistan from a specimen in Griffith's collection. _A. mandarinus_ comes from Chinese Mongolia, and it is figured in the 'Recherches sur les Mammiferes.'

* * * * *

The next species was made a separate genus, _Neodon_, by Hodgson, which has been adopted by Jerdon; but there are no good grounds for continuing this separation. Mr. Blanford is certainly of this opinion, and in his remarks on it (_see_ his 'Sc. Results Second Yarkand Mission,' pp. 41-42) he writes: "The genus _Neodon_, appears to be founded on characters of only specific importance, and the type _N. Sikimensis_ is, I think, a true _Arvicola_."

NO. 394. ARVICOLA SIKIMENSIS. _The Sikim Vole_ (_Jerdon's No. 203_).

NATIVE NAMES.--_Phalchua_, Nepalese, apparently Hindi; _Cheekyu_, Kiranti; _Singphuci_, Thibetan.

HABITAT.--Nepal; Sikim; Thibet.

DESCRIPTION.--Fur soft and silky. "Deep brownish-black above with a slight rusty shade, minutely and copiously grizzled with hairs of a deep ferruginous tint" (_Horsfield_). Or a deep golden brown from yellow hairs being intermixed; bluish-grey beneath, with a slight fulvous tint; fur leaden grey for the basal three-fourths, the terminal fourth being brownish or tawny with some tipped black; the hairs of the under-parts are dipped with dirty white; ears project beyond the fur moderately, and are hairy; feet very slender; tail thinly clad with short brown hair. The female has six mammae.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 4-3/4 inches; tail, 1-1/2 inch. Horsfield gives 5 inches for head and body.