106 DR. EMBLETON ON THE TWO 



arrival, we find it noticed as a stranger about Marlj and Versailles, 

 and then in Paris. Books on Natural History sliow that from 

 that time to this the numbers of the brown rat, or surmulot in 

 France, have gone on increasing, whilst those of the black species 

 have been diminishing. Shaw, in 1801, states that in Paris the 

 brown was much less frequent than the black, but we find the 

 proportion very greatly in favour of the brown rat in the official 

 account of the result of the famous chasse aux rats, held in the 

 autumn of the year 1849. 



The brown rat spread over France, though unequally, driving 

 out or destroying the black, and passing at the same time east- 

 ward; but in 1766, on the word of Milne Edwards, had not 

 penetrated into Russia. Shortly after that date, it was found to 

 have arrived, in great numbers, from the west, on the banks of 

 the Volga, near Astracan; to have passed that river, and gone 

 further to the eastward. It occurs, it is said, plentifully, in 

 Persia, but is wanting in Siberia. During the last hundred years, 

 our vessels have given these scavengers a free passage, at their 

 own risk, to America, Australia, New Zealand, and almost all 

 other parts of the world, including, of course, their original India. 

 We may venture to hope that our present brown rat, the conqueror 

 of England, and many other parts of the world, as he is of moderate 

 size, and can be kept under, may not be superseded, and conquered 

 in his turn, by that other Indian rat, the Bandicoot, of the size 

 of a rabbit, which might prove a really formidable and dangerous 

 pest. The black rat, however, is not yet extirpated from Britain, 

 any more than the Welshman, or the Highland celt; he continues 

 to hold his own in some of the cellars and stables of London, and 

 in which he is even sometimes more numerous than the brown; 

 according to Mr. T. Bell, and, from the report of Dr. Fleming, he 

 is very common in some parts of Edinburgh, and appears to live 

 there even in harmony with the brown invader. In Griffith's 

 Cuvier,vfe are told that the two species will live peaceably together, 

 and even inhabit contiguous burrows ; but this peace will probably 

 continue only as long as food is plentiful, when it is scarce, the 

 weak will inevitably fall a prey to the stronger. 



The following description of the black rat of Pennant and Shaw, 



