Descriptive List of the Rodents of South Africa. 205 



mammae 10 to 12 in number, 2 or 3 pairs pectoral, 3 pairs 

 inguinal. 



Skull generally resembling that of M. decuman us, but rather 

 shorter in the nasal region. 



Dimensions (measured in the flesh). Head and body 7'40; tail 

 8-63; hind foot 1-32; skull length 1-10, breadth -75; upper 

 molars '30. 



Distribution. Like the brown rat, the black rat is cosmopolitan, 

 having been carried all over the world in ships ; it has, however, 

 been driven out of many places by its brown cousin, and is now 

 comparatively rare in England. 



In Africa the black rat was formerly common in Cape Town, but 

 it now seems to have disappeared ; it is, however, the common house 

 rat of Ehodesia, and I have examined a specimen from Pretoria 

 preserved in the Museum there. 



This rat is not indigenous in Europe, though long established 

 there, it has been known to exist on the Continent since the 

 thirteenth century ; brown and rufous varieties differing somewhat 

 in colour from the ordinary European form are found in North 

 Africa, India, and Burma, and are there indigenous ; it is probably 

 from this form that the present European race originated. 



MUS CHKYSOPHILUS, DARLING'S EAT. 



MILS chrijsophilus, DE WINTON, Proc. Zool. Soc., pp. 801, 807 

 (1896). 



Description. General colour bright reddish fawn, sprinkled with 

 black hairs becoming lighter on the sides ; below white, clearly 

 denned from the fawn of the sides, all the fur above and below with 

 slaty bases ; ears oval, about three-quarters of an inch in length, 

 with a thin covering of greyish hairs ; feet covered with white hairs, 

 soles somewhat dark in colour, with the usual six pads, the proximal 

 one rounded ; tail a little longer than the head and body, the rings 

 running about 30 to an inch, towards its base lighter below r than 

 above, distally quite brown, bristles increasing in number towards 

 the tail-tip, but hardly forming a brush. 



Skull with the outer edge of the antorbital plate sloping forwards. 



A rat in the collection of the Pretoria Museum closely resembles 

 the description of this species, differing only in its greater size (head 

 and body 6 - 50 ; tail 8-0 ; hind foot 1'40), and in the absence of the 

 slaty bases in the fur of the under side. 



