g 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. decumanus_ (_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. decumanus_, 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 cocoanu