KODENTIA. 143 



thing that comes within their reach. There are three species which 

 have become quite common in our houses, viz. 



M. muscuhis, h.; Bufl'. VII, xxxix. (The Common Mouse.) 

 Universallv known. 



M. rattus, L.; Buff. VII, xxxvi. (The Black Rat.) Of which 

 no mention is made by the ancients, and which appears to have 

 entered Europe in the middle century. It is more than double 

 the size of the Mouse in each of its dimensions. The fur is 

 blackish. Several individuals have been occasionally found 

 connected by the interlacing of their tails; constituting what 

 the Germans style the King of Rats. (I) 



M. decumanus^ Pall. j Buff. VIII, xxvii. (The Norway or 

 Brown Rat.) Which did not pass into Europe till the eigh- 

 teenth century, and is now more common in large cities than 

 the Black Rat itself. It is larger than the latter by one-fourth, 

 and differs from it also by its reddish-brown hair.(2) 



These two large species appear to have originated in the 

 East, and have been transported in ships, together with the 

 Mouse, to all parts of the globe. 



Eastern Tartary and China have a Rat equal to the decu- 

 manus. 



M. caraco, Pallas, Glir. XXIII ; Schreb. clxxvii. (The Ca- 

 raco Rat.) Of a light colour j tail a little shorter than the pre- 

 ceding, and the jaws stronger. 



There is another in India, one-fourth larger than the Brown 

 Rat, the Bat perchal. Buff. Supp. VII. Ixix, which is of a red- 

 dish brown. There is a large one in the Indian Archipelago, 

 the 



M. setifer, Horsf. Jav. Of a blackish brown. These last 

 two species are bristled over with setaceous hairs, which ex- 

 tend beyond the others. 



One of the largest and most mischievous Rats known is the 



M. pilorides, Pall, and Gm. (The Musk-Rat of the Antilles.) 

 Fifteen inches in length without the tail, which is still longer 

 than the body; hair coarse, of a deep black above, and whitish 

 beneath.(3) 



(1) See Bellerman on the King of the Rats (in German), Berlin, 1820. 



(2) It appears to belong to Persia, where it lives in burrows. It was not till 

 1727, that, after an earthquake, it arrived at Astracan, by swimming across the 

 Volga. 



(3) Pallas and Gmelin erroneously describe it as being entirely white. The 

 earlier historians of the colonies attribute to it the above colours, which are pre- 

 cisely such as we have seen on the animal. 



