BLACK EAT 75 



to exist in considerable numbers in vessels in the docks. A 

 typical example (one of many) captured by a professional rat- 

 catcher on board one of the Leith and Hamburg steamers while 

 lying in Leith harbour in June 1890, was procured by Mr 

 Eagle Clarke for the Edinburgh Museum, and recorded in the 

 "Scottish Naturalist" (1891, p. 36); and I have seen another 

 specimen, also taken on a Leith steamer, still more recently. 

 Mr Thomas Hope, taxidermist, George Street, tells me that 

 some nine or ten years ago, one, which had been captured in 

 an Edinburgh skinnery, was brought to him for preservation. 

 If his identification, which I have no reason to doubt, was 

 correct, this is the last Edinburgh Mus rattus I have been 

 able to trace. 



The Black Eat was, of course, well known to Sibbald, 

 Walker, and other early writers. Neill includes it in his 

 Habbie's Howe and Tweeddale lists (1808 and 1815), and 

 Stark (" Picture of Edinburgh," 1834) tells us that it " still 

 inhabits the garrets of the high houses in the old city." Two 

 years later Ehind dismisses it with the remark, " now 

 rare" ("Excursions," p. 132); and in 1838 MacGillivray 

 (" British Quadrupeds," p. 238) wrote thus " In Edinburgh it 

 appears to be completely extirpated, as I have not seen a 

 specimen obtained there within these fifteen years." 



In his list of Forfarshire animals (1813), Don says the 

 Black Eat " is the only species I have seen in the town of 

 Forfar, and it is not rare in all the inland parts of Angus- 

 shire" (Headrick's "Agriculture" of Forfar, App., p. 38). 



The brown furred or tropical race, known as Mus alexan- 

 drinus, though abundant in the shipping in the Forth, 

 apparently more so than the typical form, is not yet known 

 to have obtained a footing on shore. The first record is that 

 of an example received in Dec. 1888 by Mr Harvie-Brown 

 from H.M.S. " Devastation," then stationed at Queensferry, 



