190 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



An extended DESCRIPTION of MUS FUSCIPE.i, 

 WATERHOUSE. 



By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S., Zoologist. 

 (Figs. 1-4). 



Few of our native rats have been described, other than from 

 external characters, and such characters are in many cases of but 

 secondary value. As a revision of the Australian Muridse is 

 much needed, any effort towards the completion of specific descrip- 

 tions will be welcomed by the Monographer. 



By the kindness of Mr. E. G. W. Palmer, we are able to supply 

 deficiencies in our knowledge of Mus fustcipes. The specimens 

 described were taken at Lawson, on the Blue Mountains, and of 

 them my correspondent writes : — 



"So far as my observations go, they are locally rare, but there 

 is a small colony in my orchard, which I first observed about 

 twelve years ago. Dogs and Dasyures have checked their rapid 

 increase. A peaty ridge is their favorite burrowing place, and 

 they burrow to a great depth. They make long well-cleared 

 surface runs, so that their burrows are easily found. Water 

 seems very necessary to them, and they swim freely. They feed 

 on grasses and herbage, and consume or injure much fruit, climbing 

 the trees for it or nibbling the windfalls, which they carry to the 

 drains and watercourses. From dissections, I believe they seldom 

 have more than two or three young at a time. Their teeth are 

 very powerful, and they make good use of them when roots or 

 dead timber obstruct their excavating. Just now (August 16th, 

 1899), they seem to be hibernating, as they rarely come out of 

 their nests." 



Subsequently Mr. Palmer told me that the rats had left their 

 old haunts, or more probably had been cleared out by snakes, as 

 a large Black Snake ( Pseudechis porphyriac7is ) had been frequently 

 seen in the immediate neighbourhood. It had, so far, evaded 

 capture. At a recent meeting of the Linnean Society of New 

 South Wales, Mr. Palmer announced that he had been bitten by 

 a Black Snake in his grounds at Lawson.* 



Description. — Fur long, very thick and soft to the touch. Colour 

 rather variable, from yellowish-brown to blackish-brown. Basal por- 

 tion of the fur deep grey, almost black, the tips yellow, sometimes 



* Abstract Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 28 Mar., 1900 



