MAMMALS. 73 



before it disappeared on the advent of its stronger 

 rival the Brown Rat. At the same time careful enquiry 

 has failed to elicit any absolute proof of the fact. 

 Black Rats have been seen from time to time, and the 

 keeper at Betton saw one in his garden a few years 

 ago, but these are most likely merely black specimens 

 of the Common Rat. At Aldersey Hall, Cheshire, there 

 was a small colony of the true Black Rat, and not 

 many years ago one was caught and sent to the Chester 

 Museum : none have been seen there since. Mr. J. 

 R. A. Mathews reports that about 40 to 50 years 

 ago there were numbers of Black Rats in the buildings 

 on Rufford's Works, at Stourbridge. Mr. T. C. 

 Eyton writing in 1836 stated, that he could not hear 

 of any authentic case of the animal occurring in Shrop- 

 shire, so that it seems unlikely that any evidence of its 

 existence here will now be forthcoming. It is not 

 known when the Black Rat was first found in England, 

 but it is not indigenous, and probably (like the Brown 

 Rat at a later date), was brought here in ships. It is 

 smaller and not so fierce or strong as the Brown Rat, 

 so that it was easily conquered by the latter. It is a 

 more slender animal altogether, and the tail is very long 

 in proportion. Length of body 7 inches ; of tail 8 or 9 

 inches. Colour, uniformly black. 



COMMON OR BROWN RAT. As mentioned in the 



M. decumanus. foregoing paragraph, the Brown Rat 



was introduced here much later than 



the Black species, about the middle of the i8th century. 



It very quickly over-ran the Country and exterminated 



the other wherever it appeared. It is now only too 



common everywhere, so that a description of its habits 



