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MORE MINOR HORRORS 



the black rat was not known here until before 

 the middle of the sixteenth century: at 

 least, he says, no author more ancient than 

 that period has described, or even alluded 

 to, it as being in Great Britain, Gesner being 

 the first to do so. Jenyns, in his * Manual 



Fig. 44. — Mv^s rattus. (From Pennant;) 



of British Vertebrate Animals,' ^ describes M. 

 rattus as ' truly indigenous ' ; but this is in 

 comparison with the brown rat, whose com- 

 paratively recently arrival he chronicles. M. 

 rattus is said to have been common on the 

 continent of Europe in the thirteenth century. 

 M. rattus has, as a rule, greyish-black 

 fur above, ash-coloured below, with a tail a 



1 London, 1833, 



