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BANDICOOT, any animal of the marsupial genus Perameles, which is the type of a family Peramelidae. The species, about a dozen in number, are widely distributed over Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea and several of the adjacent islands. They are of small size and live entirely on the ground, making nests of dried leaves, grass and sticks in hollow places and forming burrows in which they pass a great part of the day. Though feeding largely on worms and insects they ravage gardens and fields, on which account they are detested by the colonists. The name is often extended to the family.
BANDICOOT-RAT, the Anglo-Indian name for a large rat (Nesocia bandicota), inhabiting India and Ceylon, which measures from 12 to 15 in. to the root of the tail, while the tail itself measures from 11 to 13 in. The name is said to be a corruption of the Telegu pandi-koku. It differs from typical rats of the genus Mus by its broader incisors, and the less distinct cusps on the molars. Other species of the genus are found from Palestine to Formosa, as well as in central Asia. The typical species frequents villages, towns and cultivated grounds all over India and Ceylon, but is specially common in the south of the peninsula. (See RODENTIA.)