.98 RODENTIA. 



ing part of Asia by Astrachan ; first introduced to Eng- 

 land and France about 1730, since which period it has 

 spread not onlj' over the European continent, but has 

 reached America and almost every part of the world fre- 

 quented by European shipping. Pallas, who travelled in 

 Siberia in the year 1770, says, that it had not at that time 

 reached that country ; Cetti, that it is still unknown in 

 the Island of Sardinia. 



A Black Eat, with the toes white and an elongate white 

 spot beginning between the fore-legs, and extending back- 

 wards for nearly two inches, which has been several times 

 captured in the North of Ireland, wiU probably prove to 

 be a variety of Mus decumanus. The dimensions taken 

 from a stuffed specimen, procured by the late Mr. Thompson 

 of Belfast, and now in the Museum of the Natural History 

 Society of that toT\ai, are as follows : — Head and body, 13-i- 

 inches ; from the tip of the nose to the base of the ear, 2 

 inches ; tail, 7|- inches ; tarsus, from the joint to the tip 

 of toe, 1|- inch ; length of white space between fore-legs, 

 2 inches. Of two specimens in that collection, one is very 

 dark sooty brown, the other quite black. Mr. Thompson, 

 who fii'st obtained this rat, was disposed to consider it a 

 distinct species. 



Mus Rattus. 



Mi(,s Battus, Desm. Mamm. Sp. 476 ; Bell, Brit. Quad. 

 Le Eat, Bufpon. 

 Black Eat. 



Description. — Tail a little longer than the body, almost 

 naked, with about 250 rings ; ears rounded, oval, half the 

 length of the head, which is longer than in the M. decu- 

 manus, and the muzzle more taper; the upper jaw pro- 

 jects far beyond the lower, which is remarkably short ; the 

 soles of all the feet are tuberculatcd ; upper parts greyish 



