DAES bDEACKs ORY SEIE RAT 579 
Earlier British writers knew only one rat, viz., va¢tus, which Ray 
called “The Rat.” In the earlier editions of Pennant (1766 and 1768), 
and in Berkenhout (1769), the Common Rat of the present day makes 
its appearance as the “ Norway Rat,” vatius being still the “Common 
Rat.” Late in the eighteenth century (from Pennant, 1792 onwards), 
the two animals became known as the “ Black” and “ Brown” rats, and 
there has since been no change of usage. These names are not, how- 
ever, very appropriate, since there are black varieties of the “ Brown 
Rat,” while a brown form of the “Black Rat” is very common or 
universal in several Eastern countries, and is well known as the 
“ Alexandrine Rat.” At the present time the most appropriate names 
for the two animals would seem to be the “Common Rat ”and “Ship 
Rat,” thus emphasising their chief British characteristics, and avoiding 
the ambiguities of terms based on differences of colour. 
Local names :— 
(Non-Celtic) :—“ Blue Rat” of Orkney and Channel Islands. 
(Celtic) :—Irish—Franncach =“ Frenchman”; or luch fhranncach= 
“French-mouse”; /uchog mhor=“big mouse” (as in Clare Island, 
Colgan, Proc. R. I. Acad., xxxi., 4, 22, 1911); galluch=“foreign mouse” 
(C. M. Robertson); va/tan, from English ratzen. 
Scottish Gaelic—Radan (C. H. Alston), or rodan, from the English 
“rat”; radan dubh=“ black rat” (C. H. Alston). 
Manx—Roddan =“ rat.” 
Welsh—Liygoden ffrengig or Mygoden ffreinig=“ French-mouse” ; 
lygoden fawr =“ big mouse.” 
Cornish—/ogosan vras =“ big mouse.” 
The name “ French-mouse,” although perhaps at first used in its 
literal meaning,! soon came to signify, at least in Ireland, merely 
“foreign mouse” (cf. Irish ew francach =“ the French bird” =the turkey ; 
and Welsh crian ffreintg=“ French nut”=walnut); later the epithet 
was dropped, and both rat and turkey became known to the Irish 
simply as francach. Much useful and interesting information is 
collected in D. Comyns’s /rishk Illustrations to Shakespeare, 1894. 
History and Distribution in Europe:—The Black Rat, using the 
name to cover the wild forms as well, was not known to the ancient 
Greeks and Romans. The occurrence of the word re¢ in Archbishop 
AElfric’s Vocabulary (cited above) perhaps indicates that this animal 
was known to the English prior to 1000 A.D.; but since the word rata 
was the name of the House Mouse among the Provencals, it is possible 
that a similar signification may have attached to the Anglo-Saxon 
word. Some writers, as F. Cuvier (72st. Vat. Mammiferes) and Tomes 
(in Bell, ed. ii., 303), think that its establishment in Europe dates from 
1 But, as Mr Cocks points out, the adjective “ French” has long, and until quite 
recently, been generally used for anything “foreign.” 
