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.)

BANDIERA, ATTILIO (1811-1844) and EMILIO (1819-1844), Italian patriots. The
brothers Bandiera, sons of Baron Bandiera, an admiral in the Austrian navy,
were themselves members of that service, but at an early age they were won
over to the ideas of Italian freedom and unity, and corresponded with
Giuseppe Mazzini and other members of the _Giovane Italia_ (Young Italy), a
patriotic and revolutionary secret society. During the year 1843 the air
was full of conspiracies, and various ill-starred attempts at rising
against the Italian despots were made. The Bandieras began to make
propaganda among the officers and men of the Austrian navy, nearly all
Italians, and actually planned to seize a warship and bombard Messina. But
having been betrayed they fled to Corfu early in 1844. Rumours reached them
there of agitation in the Neapolitan kingdom, where the people were
represented as ready to rise _en masse_ at the first appearance of a
leader; the Bandieras, encouraged by Mazzini, consequently determined to
make a raid on the Calabrian coast. They got together a band of about
twenty men ready to sacrifice their lives for an idea, and set sail on
their desperate venture on the 12th of June 1844. Four days later they
landed near Cotrone, intending to go to Cosenza, liberate the political
prisoners and issue their proclamations. But they did not find the
insurgent band which they had been told awaited them, and were betrayed by
one of their party, the Corsican Boccheciampe, and by some peasants who
believed them to be Turkish pirates. A detachment of gendarmes and
volunteers was sent against them, and after a short fight the whole band
were taken prisoners and escorted to Cosenza, where a number of Calabrians
who had taken part in a previous rising were also under arrest. First the
Calabrians