Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon

No. 336 Mus Sladeni. — Sladen’s Rat

Habitat.—Kakhyen hills; Ponsee at 3500 feet.

Description.—Head rather elongated; snout somewhat elongate; muzzle rather deep; ears large and rounded, sparsely clad with short hairs; feet well developed, hinder ones rather strong; claws moderately long and sharp; the feet pads markedly developed, indicating an arboreal habit of life; tail slightly exceeding length of head and body, coarsely ringed, there being three rings to each one-tenth of an inch; the hairs sparse and brown; general colour of upper surface reddish-brown, more rufous than brownish, palest on the head, many hairs with broad yellow tips; cheeks greyish-rufous; chin, throat, and chest whitish, also the remaining under-parts, but with a tinge of yellowish; ears and tail pale brownish. (Abridged from Anderson’s ‘Anat. and Zool. Res.’ p. 305.)

Size.—Head and body of one, about 6·30 inches; tail, 7·20 inches.

Dr. Anderson says this species is closely allied to Hodgson’s Mus nitidus, but its skull is less elongated, with a shorter facial portion, with very much shorter nasals, and with a more abruptly defined frontal contraction than either in M. nitidus or M. rufescens so called. He adds that this appears to be both a tree and a house rat.

No. 337. MUS RUBRICOSA.
The Small Red Rat of the Kakhyen Hills.

Habitat.—Kakhyen hills and the Burma-Chinese frontier at Ponsee, and in the houses of the Shan Chinese at Hotha.

Description.—“Snout moderately pointed and long; ears small, and somewhat pointed; hind foot long and narrow; claws moderately long, compressed and sharply pointed; upper surface dark rusty brown, darkest on the middle and back, and palest on the muzzle, head and shoulder; on the sides and lower part of shoulder the reddish brown tends to pass into greyish; feet greyish; the sides of the snout greyish; all the under-parts silvery grey tending to white, without any trace of rufous, or but with a very faint yellowish blush; the tail, dull brown, is somewhat shorter than the body and head, and it is coarsely ringed, 2½ rings to one-tenth of an inch, the hair being short, sparse, and dark brown” (‘Anat. and Zool. Res.’ p. 306).

Size.—Head and body, 5·70 inches; tail, 5·15 inches.

No. 338. Mus Yunnanensis.
The Common House Rat of Yunnan.

Habitat.—Yunnan, at Ponsee; Hotha and Teng-yue-chow.

Description.—“Muzzle rather short and broad; ear large and rounded, its height considerably exceeding the distance between the inner canthus and the front of the muzzle, sparsely clad with short hairs; feet well developed; hind foot moderately long; pads prominent; claws compressed, strong, curved, and sharp; tail coarsely ringed, three rings to one-tenth of an inch; upper surface dark rich brown, with intermixed pale hairs, with broad brown tips, the sides of the face below the moustachial area, chin, throat, and all the under-parts yellowish washed with rufous; the ears and tail dusky brown; feet pale yellowish, and more or less brownish above; the tail varies in length, but is generally longer than the body and head, although it may occasionally fall short of that length” (‘Anat. and Zool. Res.’ pp, 306, 307).

Size.—Head and body, 5·70 inches; tail, 5·65 inches. An adult female had a much longer tail.

No. 339. MUS INFRALINEATUS.
The Striped-bellied Rat (Jerdon’s No. 178).

Habitat.—Madras; Bustar forests.

Description.—“Above, the fur fulvous, with the shorter hairs lead coloured; throat, breast, and belly pure white, with a central pale fulvous brown streak; tail slightly hairy.”—Jerdon.

Size.—Head and body, 5½ inches; tail, not quite 5 inches; another about 5 inches; tail, 4¼ inches.

Jerdon calls this a field rat in his popular name for it, but I think that the term should be restricted to the Nesokia or true field and earth-burrowing rats. He is of opinion that Gray’s Mus fulvescens from Nepal is the same, the description tallying to some extent, concluding 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 8½ to 9½ inches; tail, from 9 to 9½ 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 5½ to 7½ inches; tail from 6½ to 8½ 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 cocoanut-trees and bamboos, bringing forth five or six young in August and September. “They eat grains, which they collect in their nests, also young cocoanuts. They enter houses at night, but do not live there.” Kellaart’s M. tetragonurus is a variety of this, if not identical.

No. 342. MUS NIVEIVENTER.
The White-bellied House Rat (Jerdon’s No. 181).

Habitat.—The lower Himalayan ranges.

Description.—“Above blackish-brown, shaded with rufous; below entirely pure white, tail and all.”—Blyth.

Size.—Head and body, 5¼ to 7 inches; tail, 6 to 7½ inches.

Hodgson stated this to be a house rat in Nepal, but not very common. Jerdon found it common at Darjeeling. Specimens have been received from Mussoorie.

No. 343. MUS NITIDUS.
The Shining Brown Rat (Jerdon’s No. 182).

Habitat.—Nepal; Darjeeling.

Description.—Dusky brown above, dusky hoary below. According to Hodgson it is “distinguished for its smooth coat or pelage, wherein the long hairy piles are almost wanting. It is a house rat, like M. niveiventer, but much rarer, and frequents the mountains rather than the valleys.” The long hairs are 11/16 inch in length, horny at the base, with black tip, the short fur ashy, with rufous tips.

Size.—Head and body, 6½ inches; tail 7¼ inches.

Blyth writes of this species (‘J. A. S. B.’ vol. xxxii. 1863, p. 343): “We have several specimens of what I take to be this rat from Darjeeling. They are especially distinguished by the fineness and softness of the fur. One specimen only, of eight from Darjeeling, which I refer to this species, has the lower parts pure white, abruptly defined.”

There is a smaller rat, only four inches in length, which agrees exactly with the above, which Hodgson named M. horietes. It is not mentioned in Blyth’s Catalogue, but it has not been overlooked by Blyth, as Jerdon’s remarks would lead one to suppose, for in the ‘Memoir on the Rats and Mice in India,’ by the former, in the ‘J. A. S. B.’ vol. xxxii. for 1863, it is entered with a quotation from Hodgson.

No. 344. MUS CAUDATIOR.
The Chestnut Rat (Jerdon’s No. 183).

Habitat.—The lower Eastern Himalayas, i.e., Nepal, Darjeeling, &c.; also in Burmah, Lower Pegu, and Martaban.

Description.—“Above a fine bright cinnamon colour, with inconspicuous black tips; the under-parts white, which is abruptly divided from the cinnamon hue above” (Blyth). Sometimes yellowish-white (Jerdon). Muzzle sharp; ears and tail long.

Size.—Head and body, about six inches; tail, 7¾ inches.

According to Blyth the Nepal specimens are darker than those from Burmah, which he says “differs only from the Nepalese animal of Mr. Hodgson by having the upper parts entirely of a bright cinnamon colour.”

No. 345. MUS CONCOLOR.
The Common Thatch Rat of Pegu.

Habitat.—Upper and Lower Burmah, Malayan peninsula.

Description.—I have been unable to trace any accurate description of this rat, which Blyth says “conducts from the long-tailed arboreal rats to the ordinary house mice.” In his ‘Catalogue of the Mammals of Burmah,’ published in the ‘Jour. Asiatic Soc. Beng.’ for 1875, he remarks that “it requires to be critically examined in the fresh state.” In the ‘J. A. S. B.,’ vol. xxviii. p. 295, he describes a young one as dark greyish mouse colour; but this is not reliable, as the young rats and mice change colour as they attain full growth.[23]

23 Since writing the above, Dr. Anderson has kindly allowed me to examine the specimens of Mus concolor in the museum, and in the adult state they are considerably more rufescent. In one specimen, allowing for the effects of the spirit, the fur was a bright rufescent brown; but, whatever be the tint of the prevailing colour, it pervades the whole body, being but slightly paler on the under-parts. Size, about 4 inches; tail, about 4½ inches.—R. A. S.