8 Coward, Some Notes on the Mannnals of Lundy. 



lost. Mr. Millais describes the vibrissas as black, but 

 in these examples there are brown and grey hairs as well 

 as black ; his statement that the ears are naked is not 

 correct ; they are covered with short hair on both the 

 outer and inner surface. 



Even if we accept the statements of Grose and 

 Chanter as evidence that Mus rattiis was the Rat of 

 Lundy prior to the date at which Mns norvegicus arrived, 

 we have no proof that it is, as Chanter calls it, indigenous. 

 Apart from the supposition, believed by most authorities 

 to be proved, that the Black Rat has only inhabited 

 England for a few centuries, I must call attention again 

 to the fact that Black as well as Brown Rats constantly 

 reach our ports. We have in these eight examples two 

 distinct types and no intermediate forms, suggesting a 

 question, which, however, we cannot answer without 

 reference to a large range of specimens ; do the two types 

 on Lundy breed true? If this, in the future can be shown 

 to be the case, we shall conclude that one or other or 

 both types have quite recently been introduced, for in 

 most cases where the sub-species live together we find 

 these intermediate forms. A number of examples caught 

 in the Liverpool Docks, which I examined, showed the 

 brown upper parts of Mns rattns alexcxndriniis and the 

 smoky under surfaces of Miis rattns rattiis. The large 

 range in the British Museum includes all manner of 

 variations, and from the same locality are white and 

 dusky bellied Alexandrine Rats. As a rule the older Rats 

 show a yellow tinge on the belly, but though many young 

 examples are very white underneath, some are distinctly 

 dusky. 



The statement, then, made by Mr. J. LI. W. Page (6) 

 diat Lundy " is the last refuge of the Old English black 

 rat, which still inhabits Rat Island ; indeed till about fort}^ 



