190 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



in gardens, where they do much damage to newly sown peaa 

 and to bulbous roots. 



Common Mouse, Mus musculus. Linn. 



A pest in nearly every house ; troublesome while they live, but 

 more so when they die below the floors, where the decay of their 

 fat little bodies causes a most objectionable smell. 



Black Eat, Mus raitus. Linn. 



This, the only species of rat at one time known in Britain, is 

 now nearly, if not entirely, extinct all over the country. In our 

 district it was common, but is now quite unknown, the Brown 

 Eat having proved too strong for it. Mr William Colquhoun 

 informs me that the Black Eat kept entirely to houses or 

 buildings, and seldom, if ever, was found in the fields. 



Brown Eat, Mus decumanus. Pall. 



This species (by a strange mistake called the Norway Eat, for 

 when the name was given it was not known in Norway), is 

 now the common rat of this country. Mr William Colquhoun 

 says it was first introduced into the Loch Lomond district by 

 "Gabbarts,"* from sixty to sixty-five years ago; and in a very 

 short time it over-ran the whole district, fields and houses 

 alike, completely driving out its less pugnacious relation the 

 Black Eat. 



Water Vole, Arvicola amphibius (Linn.). 



Both the Brown and Black varieties of this species are common 

 on the banks of the streams and rivers of our neighbourhood, and 

 on some of the islands of the Loch. 



Common Field Vole, Arvicola agrestis. De Selys. 



This species, known as the Short-tailed Field Mouse, is common, 

 although it has never increased to the same extent as in some 

 other counties of Scotland. 



* Gabbarts : boats of from 30 to 40 tons, wliich, before the railway was 

 opened to Balloch, carried coals, etc., from the Clyde, up the Leven, to 

 various places on the banks of the Loch, taldng back return cargoes of slates 

 or timber. 



