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).