i200 Transactions. — Zoolo'ji/. 



arrangement of angle of sun-rays and the line of sight. Here 

 is another description from my notes : Male, ears jimped with 

 fighting (?), reddish-brown, with black hairs slightly longer. 

 Short black hairs on head, giving a stand-u^j look to the coat, 

 as of an animal very cold or sick. (This may be taken as a 

 distinct characteristic of the variety.) Nose and mouth pink. 

 Under-jaw, belly, inside fore-legs, blue-white, with dark under- 

 down. Faint bar of reddish down breast. Darker-brown 

 coloui- down front of fore-legs. Dark reddish ring of colour 

 round to inside hind-legs at the hock in the lowest of the long 

 body-hair. Top of back darker than sides. Tail smooth ; 

 hardly any short hairs. Toes white ; hind-toes with patch of 

 dark colour on middle knuckles. Forehead or front of face 

 looking to project, or rounded by hairs standing out. Whiskers 

 black. 



Unfortunately I get no opportunity to observe the habits 

 of these rats, for it is from the dead bodies brought home by the 

 cat that my information is derived. I have seen the heaps of 

 hinau seeds with the minute perforation and covered in saw- 

 dust or chippings as described by Mr. Rutland ; but any of the 

 rats might have this habit. These rats have not the black 

 hairs of the back projecting twice the length of the other 

 hairs, which I take to be a distinctive feature of M. dccu- 

 manns, especially the male. 



A curious fact is observable in rats and mice : .you will see 

 how closely the feet resemble the human hand (as indicated 

 in their scientific ]iame — M. decumanus) ; but the thumb on 

 each fore-foot is wanting in the top joint and nail. 



In England there are several distinct species of mouse; but 

 how few people see or know them one from another ! The 

 ordinary mouse, M. musculns — probably imported ; the long- 

 and the short-tailed field-mice ; the dormouse, sometimes kept 

 as a pet, but sleeping most of its time, as its name indicates ; 

 an exceedingly small species, the harvest-mouse, which builds 

 a covered nest of grasses among the cornstalks or bushes : 

 and two kinds of shrew-mouse — these have noses peculiarly 

 long and sharp-pointed, to facilitate their search after the 

 small insects on which they feed ; cats are said never to eat 

 them, although they may kill one by mistake. All but the 

 first-mentioned live in the fields, and do not enter buildings. 

 There are also the black rat, said to be extinct ; a grey 

 water-rat, and the Norway rat. There are, thus, ten distinct 

 species inhabiting the one country. 



Mr. A. R. Wallace writes, "the Black Rat (.Vus rattu-s), 

 was the common rat of Europe till, in the beginning of the 

 eighteenth century, the large Brown Rat (If. dccuvianus); ap- 

 peared on the lower Volga, and there spread more or less 

 rapidly, till it overran Europe and generally drove out the 



