A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



white and belonging perhaps to the same 

 litter, were observed there at about the same 

 time. Albinos are not very uncommon, and 

 have several times been met with in the 

 county. A white rat with black eyes was 

 shot by Mr. G. Cornish on the banks of the 

 Gipping at Ipswich about the year 1868 or 

 1869, and in February 1903 an adult which 

 was of a smoky black colour all over was to 

 be seen in the shop of Mr. Asten, taxidermist 

 of Woodbridge. It had been caught at Boy- 

 ton. 



25 Black Rat. Mui rattus, Linn. 



Black rats have occasionally been reported 

 to have been caught in old houses in Ipswich. 

 Mr. H. C. Hudson of that town lately told 

 the writer that when living in Fore Street, 

 he used now and then to catch examples of 

 this species, with which he is well acquainted, 

 sometimes as many as three or four in a year. 

 The last captured was in the summer of 189 1. 

 One was caught in a house in Brook Street, 

 Ipswich, about the year 1863 or 1864. Mr. 

 Frank Norgate, in a letter to the writer, gives 

 particulars of a black rat killed in January 1891 

 at a pea stack at Little Welnetham. His 

 description of this animal, carefully taken 

 down at the time of capture, agrees in most 

 details with that given by Bell {Hist. Brit, 

 ^ad.) of M. rattus, excepting that the tail 

 was ' well covered with hair,' whereas in that 

 species it is usually nearly naked. Through 

 the kindness of the owner of this specimen, 

 Willoughby Josselyn, Esq., the writer was 

 allowed to examine it, but could not arrive at 

 a decided opinion as to its species. Without 

 having seen Mr. Norgate's notes referred to 

 above, and taking into consideration the place 

 of capture, one would I think be inclined to 

 label this rat ' Mus decumanus (black variety).' 

 Its form and appearance had probably under- 

 gone considerable alteration through and since 

 the process of stuffing, especially as regards 

 the shape of the muzzle ; and both tail and 

 ears seemed rather short for M. rattus. The 

 animal being mounted by itself in a small 

 glazed case, it was impossible to get a clear 

 view of the feet. At Yarmouth the black 

 rat seems to have increased rather than 

 diminished in numbers since the Messrs. 

 Pagets' list was published. It is there stated 

 that ' This species still remains here, though 

 its numbers are gradually decreasing ; it is 

 now seldom found, except in the ceilings and 

 upper stories of old buildings.' Mr. A. Patter- 

 son (* Mammalia of Great Yarmouth and its 

 Immediate Neighbourhood,' Zoologist, 1898, p. 

 305) writes : ' Than at the present moment 

 the black rat was never more numerous at 



Yarmouth.' He further states that in 1895, 

 when its numbers appeared to be increasing, 

 it confined itself chiefly to the south-western 

 part of the town, much of which is in the 

 county of Suffolk. Mr. Patterson received 

 over a hundred examples within a few months. 

 Traffic with foreign ports tends here to keep 

 up a supply of black rats, and prevents the 

 species from dying out. 



[Alexandrian Rat. Mus alexandrinus, Dt 

 Selys. 



On 9 May 1903 I received a black rat 

 which had been caught on the premises of 

 Messrs. Paul of Ipswich, corn merchants and 

 importers of foreign grain. It was an adult 

 female in good condition, with glossy shining 

 fur. Mr. T. Southwell, who examined this 

 animal, pronounced it to be a specimen of M. 

 aUxandrinus, the continental form of our M. 

 rattus ; in colour however it resembled the 

 latter. The great length of the tail (nearly 

 9 inches), in comparison with that of the 

 head and body, was very striking. Some of 

 the hairs of the whiskers, which were very 

 abundant, reached 2^ inches. The manager 

 of the above-mentioned firm, to whom I am 

 indebted for this specimen, stated that black 

 and slate-coloured rats were not unfrequently 

 caught in their warehouses and granaries.] 



26. House Mouse. Mus musculus, Linn. 



Abundant everywhere, and, like the brown 

 rat, always ready to adapt itself to any change 

 of circumstance or situation. Thus in the 

 matter of nest building, it turns to account 

 any material it finds available. In a stack 

 hay or straw is used, in the carpenter's shop 

 shavings serve its purpose equally well, and in 

 the house paper or rag of any kind is soon 

 converted into soft and comfortable bedding. 

 A nest found in a fowl house at Blaxhall 

 was composed entirely of the bright buEF 

 feathers or some Pekin bantams. Scarcely 

 any animal multiplies faster than this species. 

 The writer has records of three mouse's nests 

 in Suffolk, containing respectively fourteen, 

 seventeen and thirty-two young ones. In the 

 last case more than one female had probably 

 used the same nest as a nursery. In thrash- 

 ing a wheat stack at Blaxhall in April 1881 

 a white mouse was killed with a litter of 

 young ones, all of which were white, and 

 like the mother had black eyes, and were 

 therefore not albinos. Some of the young 

 had both ears of a greyish colour, while in 

 others only one ear was coloured. Most of 

 them had also a small spot or two of the same 

 tint at the root of the tail. In the spring of 

 1903 several mice of a cinnamon colour 



