hree kinds--is a brown, mixed with a tinge of fawn; the
under-parts are whitish, with a yellowish tinge; the nose, ears, and
feet are dark flesh-coloured or brownish, and the feet are covered
with short brown hair. The incisors are orange yellow; the claws
yellowish.

Sir Walter Elliot states that a variety found in red soil is much
redder in colour than that inhabiting the black land. The skull is
considerably smaller, according to Dr. Anderson, than that of the
Bengal _Nesokia_, _N. Blythiana_, of the same age, from which it is
also distinguished by its more outwardly arched malar process of the
maxillary, by its considerably smaller teeth and long but less open
anterior palatine foramina. The brain case is also relatively
shorter and more globular than that of _Nesokia Blythiana_.

SIZE.--Head and body, about 7 inches; tail, 6-1/2 inches.

The habits of this rat are similar to those of the Bengal species,
to which I will allude further on, and it has the same way of taking
to water when pursued.

Jerdon says that this rat is most destructive to tea-trees, biting
the roots just below the surface, more, he believes, because they
happen to come in the way of their burrows than to feed on them.

Sir Walter Elliot writes: "In its habits it is solitary, fierce,
living secluded in spacious burrows, in which it stores up large
quantities of grain during the harvest, and when that is consumed
lives upon the _huryale_ grass and other roots. The female produces
from eight to ten at a birth, which she sends out of her burrow as
soon as they are able to provide for themselves. When irritated it
utters a low grunting cry, like the bandicoot. The race of people
known by the name of Wuddurs, or tank-diggers, capture this animal
in great numbers as an article of food, and during the harvest they
plunder their earths of the grain stored up for their winter
consumption, which in favourable localities they find in such
quantities as to subsist almost entirely upon it during that season
of the year. A single burrow will sometimes yield as much as half
a seer (1 lb.) of grain, containing even whole ears of jowaree
(_Holchus sorghum_)." Sir Walter Elliot goes on to give a most
interesting account of the construction of the burrows of this
animal.

NO. 326. NESOKIA BLYTHIANA.
_The Bengal Field-Rat_.

NATIVE NAME.--_Yenkrai_, Bengalee.

HABITAT.--From Ghazipur in the North-west to Eastern Bengal and
Cachar. Very common about Ca