7_).

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 bud