MURID& 475 



predaceous habits, omnivorous diet, and great fecundity. They 

 bear four or five times in the year from four to ten blind and 

 naked young, which are in their turn able to breed at an age of 

 about six months ; the time of gestation being about twenty 

 days. 



The Black Eat (M. rattus) is a smaller and more lightly built 

 species, generally not more than 7 inches in length, with a slender 

 head (Fig. 212, B), large ears, and a thin tail of about 8 or 9 

 inches in length. The colour is usually a glossy bluish-black, some- 

 what lighter below; but in the tropical variety described as M. 

 alexandrinus the general colour is gray or rufous, and the belly 

 white. The disposition of the Black Rat is milder than that of 

 M. decumanus, and the white and pied rats kept as pets mostly belong 

 to this species. In many localities where it was formerly abundant 

 it has been entirely superseded by M. decumanus, but it is said that 

 in some parts of Germany it has been lately reasserting itself. 



M. musculus, the Common House-Mouse, is, like the Brown Rat, 

 originally a native of Asia, whence it has spread to all the inhabited 

 parts of the globe. Its habits and appearance are too well known 

 to need any description. 



M. sylvaticus, the Wood or Long -tailed Field -Mouse, is very 

 common in many parts of England, often taking to barns and out- 

 houses for shelter during the winter. It is of about the same size 

 and proportions as M. musculus, but of a bright reddish-gray colour, 

 with a pure white belly. 



M. minutus, the Harvest-Mouse, is the smallest of the European 

 Mice, seldom exceeding 2 or 3 inches in length. It is of a 

 yellowish-red colour, with comparatively short ears and tail. It 

 lives entirely away from human habitations, generally dwelling in 

 grass or corn-fields, where it builds a globular nest of dried grass of 

 the size of a cricket-ball, in which the young are nurtured. 



Nesocia. 1 General characters those of Mus, but the incisors 

 and molars very much wider, and the tubercles of the latter more 

 connected by transverse ridges, thus producing a laminated type 

 of structure. 



This genus has been placed by some writers in a distinct sub- 

 family with Phlce&mys, but Mr. 0. Thomas regards it as so closely 

 allied to Mus that even its generic separation may be open to 

 question. It comprises several species, mostly spread over Southern 

 Asia, ranging from Palestine to Formosa, and from Kashmir to 

 Ceylon, but N. scullyi is found in Turkestan. The great Indian 

 Bandicoot-Rat (N. bandicota) is the largest representative of the 

 subfamily, often exceeding a foot in length. N. bengalensis is 

 remarkable for possessing no less than eighteen mammse. Fossil 

 remains of Nesocia occur in the Pleistocene of Madras and in the 

 1 Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. x. p. 264 (1842). Amended from Nesokia. 



