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Show 522 MR. W. L. SCLATER ON SOME INDIAN MURIDiE. [June 17, 6. Notes on some Indian Rats and Mice. By W. L. SCLATER, B.A., F.Z.S., Deputy Superintendent of the Indian Museum. [Eeceived June 3, 1890.] (Plates XLIV. & XLV.) The following notes were written during the preparation of the catalogue of the specimens of Rats and Mice in the Indian Museum ; they may be considered as forming a supplement to Mr. Thomas's paper published in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society ' for 1881, which is the foundation of all accurate knowledge of the Indian Muridae. Mr. Thomas's paper dealt only with those species which were found in India and the Himalayas, and excluded those species found only in Assam and Burmah ; but in the following notes the Assamese and Burmese species have been also alluded to, and somewhat more detailed descriptions are given of one or two species hitherto not adequately described. Appended to the paper is a complete list of all the types of Muridae now in the Indian Museum, which may perhaps be useful to some naturalists. All the species found within the Indian Empire are mentioned in order whether the Indian Museum possesses examples of them or not. There is, ou the whole, a very good collection of Bats and Mice in the Indian Museum, but there are still one or two districts whence collections are much wanted; among others the North-west Himalayas, Ceylon, and Upper Burma are places from which the Museum contains few or no specimens of this family. 1. NESOKIA HARDWICKII (Gray) ; Thomas, P. Z. S. 1881, p. 524. From an examination of the large series of this species in the Museum, it does not seem to be possible to distinguish N. huttoni of Blyth from N. hardwickii, even as a geographical race. Thomas gives the length of the hind foot as the principal distinction, but this does not seem to hold good when a large number of specimens are measured. The difference of the fur of the two so-called races also breaks down in the case of the specimens in the Museum coming from Sind, from which place we have specimens exhibiting both varieties of fur. It is possible, however, that the character of the fur is directly due to climate and season, but of this it is difficult to obtain direct evidence without carefully dated specimens. There is in the Museum one example of this species obtained at Purneah in Bengal, showing a considerable eastward extension of the range of the species. 2. NESOEIA SCULLTI, Wood-Mason, Proc. As. Soc. Beng. 1876, p. 80. A species (Nesokia brachyura) has recently been described |