rown; whiskers black; under parts dull
white; the hairs on the tail, which are arranged distichously, are
darker than those of the body, infuscated except at the tip of the
tail, where they are whitish; the muzzle is acute; ears moderate and
naked; the fur above is mixed densely with sharp flat spines; the
under coat is delicate and fine; the few spines on the lower parts
are smaller and finer; the thumb is without a nail.

SIZE.--Head and body, 6 inches; tail, 3-1/2, or five inches including
the hair; planta, 1 inch.

This species was discovered by the Rev. Mr. Baker in the Western Ghats
of Malabar, and in Cochin and Travancore, at an elevation of about
3000 feet. He writes of it: "It lives in clefts in the rocks and hollow
trees, and is said to hoard ears of grain and roots, seldom comes
into the native huts, and in that particular neighbourhood the
hillmen told me they are very numerous. I know they are to be found
in the rocky mountains of Travancore, but I have never met with them
on the plains." In another place he adds: "I have been spending the
last three weeks in the Ghats, and, amongst other things, had a great
hunt for the new spiny dormice. They are most abundant, I find, in
the elevated vales and ravines, living only in the magnificent old
trees there, in which they hollow out little cavities, filling them
with leaves and moss. The hill people call them the 'pepper-rat,'
from their destroying large quantities of ripe pepper (_Piper
nigrum_). Angely and jackfruit (_Artocarpus ovalifolia_ and
_integrifolia_) are much subject to their ravages. Large numbers of
the _shunda_ palm (_Caryota_) are found in these hills, and toddy
is collected from them. These dormice eat through the covering of
the pot as suspended, and enjoy themselves. Two were brought to me
in the pots half drowned. I procured in one morning sixteen specimens.
The method employed in obtaining them was to tie long bamboos (with
thin little branches left on them to climb by) to the trees; and,
when the hole was reached, the man cut the entrance large enough to
admit his hand, and took out the nest with the animals rolled up in
it, put the whole into a bag made of bark, and brought it down. They
actually reached the bottom sometimes without being disturbed. It
was very wet, cold weather, and they may have been somewhat torpid;
but I started a large brown rat at the foot of one of these trees,
which ran up the stem into a hole, and four dormice we