172 The Mammalia of Essex ; a ContHhation towards a 



Mus MuscuLus. Common Mouse. — Who does not know 

 this foul- smelling, but nevertheless pretty little beast? It 

 abounds everywhere, n,nd has followed man to all parts 

 of the world. Houses, buildings, and corn-ricks are its 

 favourite haunts, and it does not occur in this country 

 except in their vicinity. Its original home certainly was 

 not in Britain. 



Mus RATTUs. Black Rat. — This, our oldest rat, was 

 abundant before the advent of the Brown Rat, called by 

 Walton and others the " Hanoverian." It is now almost 

 extinct, but still occurs about the docks and East End of 

 London. These may not be native examples, and probably 

 the race is kej^t up by escapes from the vessels in the docks 

 in the neighbourhood. The Black Rat is easily known from 

 the Hanoverian Rat by the slenderness and length of the 

 tail, and by the mouth appearing to be so far under the nose. 

 In habits and feeding there is much in common between the 

 two species, but yius rattus in buildings confines itself to the 

 upper parts and roof, and Mus decmnanus to the basements 

 and drains. 



Mus DEcuMANUs. Hanovcriau or Norway Rat. — This pest, 

 although placed amongst our native animals, did not make 

 its appearance in England until the earlier part of the 

 eighteenth century, doubtless brought hither by means of 

 merchant vessels from some southern country. Pennant 

 says from the East Indies,^ and he remarks with prophetical 

 intuition, " It has quite extirpated the common kind [Mus 

 rattus) wherever it has taken- up its residence ; and it is to 

 be feared that we shall scarcely find any benefit by the change 

 — the Norway rat having the same disposition, with greater 

 abilities for doing mischief than the common kind." At the 

 time when the name " Norway Rat " was applied to it, it was 

 not known in Norwav at all. It was called the " Hanoverian 



^ [" I suspect that this rat came in ships originally from the East 

 Indies ; a lai'ge brown species being found there called IkDidicotei^, which 

 burrows underground. Barbot (Churchill's Coll. Voy. 214) also mentions 

 a species inhabiting the fields in Guinea, and probably the same with 

 this." Pennant, ' British Zoology,' i. 117, (4th Edition, 177G.)— Ed.] 



