g 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
Indicu