Manchester Memoirs, Vol. Hi. (1908), No. 6. 5 



and central position was re-placed by lower and more 

 powerful lights at the north and south of Lundy, wrecks 

 were of frequent occurrence, and the majority of the 

 Black Rats which occur in the British islands to-day are 

 found in seaports, where they have, without doubt, been 

 introduced by ships. While admitting the possibility of 

 frequent additions to the Brown and Black Rat population 

 of Lundy by refugees from wrecks, there are so many 

 references to the Black Rats of Lundy, since the date 

 when the Brown Rats were supposed to have first 

 appeared, that I do not think it probable that the later 

 introduction has ever succeeded in entirely driving out 

 the other. 



Chanter quotes from Camden (2) that " the whole land 

 swarms with rabbits and black rats," but in the 1594 Latin 

 and 1637 English editions, which I have consulted, there 

 is no mention of Rats ; I fancy from the modernised 

 wording of Chanter's quotation that it must be taken 

 from a more recent edition, which some editor has 

 tampered with. 



The earliest reference to Rats which I have found, is in 

 the same MS. journal which first mentions Rat Island, 

 referring to affairs in 1752. " Had it not been for the 

 supply of rabbits and young sea-gulls our table would have 

 been but poorly furnished, rats being so plenty that they 

 destroyed every night, what was left of our repast by day." 

 This quotation is extracted from Chanter's " Lundy 

 Island " and not from the original, and from the same 

 source I have taken the words of the Rev. Thomas 

 Martyn of Cambridge, who gave evidence about the island 

 in Chancery proceedings in 1776. " It was so overrun 

 with rats and rabbits, that any crops which might be 

 produced thereoff, would, as he apprehended, be infallibly 

 devoured by them." 



