BLACK RAT. 303 



however, appear that even the former was known here 

 before tlie middle of the sixteenth century; — at least 

 no author more ancient than that period has described or 

 even alluded to it, Gesner being the first who described 

 and figured it. Its smaller size renders it an unequal 

 nuitch for the lirown Rat, which, in the combats which 

 famine occasions to take place between them, most 

 usually comes off victorious ; and to this circumstance, 

 rather than to any real antipathy between them, may 

 pi'obably be ascribed the gradual diminution in their 

 numbers, and the usurpation by the Brown Rat of the 

 former liaunts of the present species, which is indeed 

 now rarely found, excepting in old houses of large cities, 

 as in London, in Edinburgh, and in a few other places, 

 where it still exists, but in very reduced numbers. 

 Fifteen or twenty years ago this animal was not rare in 

 several localities in Warwickshire, but we now doubt the 

 possibility of obtaining a single example. To Colonel 

 Drummond-Hay we are indebted for the following inte- 

 resting notice of its occurrence in Scotland : " The year 

 before last (1860), while staying in the Highlands in tlu; 

 vicinity of Pitlochry, a small colony of Black Rats made 

 their appearance, occupying a drain which had been 

 covered in about two years before. There were five or 

 six pairs ; they were very shy, and, I regret to say, all 

 decamped as suddenly as they came, and they have never, 

 as I learn, been observed since. My impression was that 

 they were the old native Black Rat ; and if so, the first 

 I have ever heard of within the memory of any living 

 person in the county." In Ireland, as we learn from 

 Dr. Kinahan, it is now very rare, although he informs 

 us that he has i'ormcrly seen specimens from all the 

 provinces, and remembers, not more than thirteen 

 years since, seeing them at play in the areas in Dublin. 



