72 MAMMALS. 



The food of the black rat is varied, though its preference 

 is unquestionably for vegetable matter. 



The rats need little description, their typical appearance 

 being too familiar. In colour the present species has a good 

 deal of grey in its fur, though its common name 

 ppears ice, serves ^ distinguish it from the other species. 

 The short lower jaw of the black rat gives the 

 face a shrew-like expression. The ears are large and naked. 

 The tail, longer than the head and body, is nearly naked 

 and ringed with scales. The feet are plantigrade, the hind- 

 feet with five well-developed toes, the forefeet with four 

 toes and a rudimentary clawed thumb. 



The Brown Rat, easily distinguished by its superior size, 

 is the rat commonly met with in this country, where it has 



all but ousted its smaller black relative, just 

 Brown Bat. . . , . } J . 



as, in the Antipodes, it has driven to extinc- 

 tion the possibly apocryphal Maori rat of New Zealand. 

 It is wrongly called the Hanoverian or Norway rat, and 

 would appear to have been introduced at the end of the 

 seventeenth century. 



Its food is still more varied than that of the last species, 

 as it is not only carnivorous at certain seasons, but is also 



known to relapse on very slight provocation 



into cannibalism. Game, fish, young birds, 

 eggs, frogs, snails, truffles, and grain, are among the 

 articles on which it commonly feeds ; and it is also known 

 to gnaw hard substances from which it could not possibly 

 derive any nourishment, in the endeavour, possibly, to keep 

 its teeth worn to the proper level. It is a powerful 

 swimmer, and I remember seeing one night in Sydney 

 Harbour a large number of these rats leaving a ship, 

 having in all probability exhausted the food supply. 

 If anything, this species is even more prolific than the 



last, as many as twelve having often been 

 ingi recorded in one litter, though the number of 



