General Notes. 167 



who kindly examined a copy of Molina's 1776 edition for me, states 

 that no binomial names are used in it. On this basis, the animal should 

 be known as Vizcacia mscaccica (Brandis). James A. G. Rehn. 



An older Name for the Norway Rat. 



Erxleben ('Systema Regni Animalis', p. 381, 1777), applied the name 

 Mus norvegicus to the rat which was named decwmanus by Pallas one 

 year later; accordingly it should replace the latter name. James A. G. 

 Rehn. 



On the recent Occurrence of the Black Rat in Boston, Massachusetts. 



Under date of July 11, 1900, Mr. Frank Blake Webster, of Hyde Park, 

 Mass., wrote me as follows: "About a year ago, a young man who lived 

 in Boston said there were black rats in a store there. We had him ob 

 tain a specimen, which was mounted, and which we still have. During 

 the many years that I have been engaged in business in the city of Bos 

 ton I have never seen one". The specimen was sent to me and identified 

 as Mus rattus by Doctor J. A. Allen and myself. Edgar A. Mearns. 



Note on Dipodomys Montanus Baird. 



Among the mammal types treasured in the collection of the United 

 States National Museum is the type of Baird's Dipodomys montanns, 

 originally described in the Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, in 1855, but figured and more fully elaborated in that 

 author's Mammals of North America, published in 1857. This well- 

 marked species proves on comparison to be strictly identical with Dipo 

 domys elator Merriam, named and described in the Proceedings of the 

 Biological Society of Washing-ton, in 1894, from specimens taken at 

 Henrietta, Clay Co., Texas, about 450 miles southeast of Fort Massa 

 chusetts. The synonomy of Dipodomys montanus will therefore be as 

 follows: 

 Dipodomys montanus Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., April, 1855, p. 



334 (Fort Massachusetts). 



Dipodomys ordii var. montanus Baird, Mamm. North America, 1857, 

 pp. 410, 411, 757, 762, pi. Ixxxiii, fig. 4, a, b, c (teeth of type- 

 No. -WV"' a youngish adult). Type collected by Captain E. G. 

 Beckwith, near Fort Massachusetts ("N. M. On head of Rio 

 Grande, in San Luis valley. Altitude, 8,365 feet. Latitude, 37 

 32 7 ; longitude, 105 23' "). 



Dipodomys elator Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. ix, p. 109, June 

 21, 1894 (type from Henrietta, Clay Co., Texas). 



Edgar A. Mearns, 



