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.