302 



RODENTIA. 



MURIDiE. 



MURIDjE. 



BLACK RAT. 



ScoticC, RATTON. 



Mus rattus. (Linn.) 



Specific Character. — Greyish-black above, ash colour beneath ; ears halt' the 

 length of the head ; tail a little longer than the body. 



Mas rattus, Linn. Syst. Nat. Edit. xii. I. p. 83, 12. Mull. 



Zool. Dan. Prod. p. 5, sp. 31. Eexleb. Syst. 



p. 382, 2. Desmar. Mam. p. 300, sp. 476. Flem. 



Brit. An. i3. 20. Jenyns, Brit. Vert. p. 32. Blas. 



Faun. Deutsch. 1, 317. 

 ,, domesticus major, Rat, Syn. Quad. p. 217. 

 Rat, BuFFON, Ilist. Nat. VII. p. 238, t, xxxvi. 



Black Rat, Penn. Brit. Zool. I. p. 113. Shaw, Gen. Zool. p. 32, 



t, cxxx. 



The old English or Black Rat, which has now become 

 a rare animal in this country, was, previously to the 

 introduction of its more powerful congener and persecu- 

 tor, the Brown Rat, as numerous and as extensively dis- 

 tributed as that siiecies has since become. It does not. 



