43S 



V HRTEBRATA. 



rial appearance, but having the distinctive organization of the Muriens. The only known species 

 is Cumming's Phleomys, P. Oummingii^ found in the Island of Lucon, one of the Philippines, 

 where it is called Parout by the Datives. It is a rare species, even in its native island, and its 

 habits arc little known. It is oine inches long, w ith a tail three inches, and is not only an animal 

 of considerable size. But of vigorous character, defending itself from dogs and men with great 

 savageness. It lives on roots and the shoots of plants, hut does not dig burrows. 



^y-i^-~- 



TIIE BItOWX RAT. 



Genus MUS : Mm — this word being the Latin for Mouse. "We have already treated of numer- 

 ous genera and a multitude of species which bear the general designation of Rat or Mouse ; we 

 dow come to those to which these names more truly belong, and of which the domestic Rats and 

 Mice are the types — animals possessing an energy of character which has carried their species over 

 the whole globe. These consist of three well known species: the Common Mouse of our hop 

 .l/'/.v musculus; the Souris of the French; the Maus and Hausmaus of the Germans, and Sorgio 

 di Casa of the Italians; the Black Rat, Mm rattus ; the Rat of the French; Ratze of the Ger- 

 mans; Rot of the Dutch, and Ratto of the Italians; and the Brown Rat, Mm decu nanus ; the 

 Surmulot of the French. While those we have described have been the comparatively gentle, 

 timid eaters of roots, fruits, and seeds, living for the most part in houses of their own construction 

 — some in meadows, some in fields, some in forests, but all apart from man, and all feeding on 

 vegetables gathered by themselves, though occasionally from the treasuries of man — those we arc 

 now to notice are devourers alike of fish and flesh, fruits and vegetables; omnivorous in fact, and 

 jessing at once the greediness, activity, cunning, audacity, and perseverance which have en- 

 abled them, while inciting the rage, to defy the vengeance of man, at the same time persistingin 

 being his companions, living in his houses, feeding in his larders and granaries — in short, making 

 him their servant and drudg( — their steward, farmer, gardener, brewer, baker, butcher, and banker. 

 •■ Where thon goest I will go; where thou dwellest I will dwell," is the practical language of tie 

 Rat and the Mouse to civilized man, and in spite of cats, terriers, traps, and ratsbane, they haw 

 for centuries fulfilled this devout and aifectionate promise. 



The COMMON DOMESTIC Mouse is not indigenous to our continent, but was brought hither in 

 European ships, after the discovery of America. The same is doubtless the fact in relation to tin 

 two species of Rat which infest our houses, tic lUm-k Rut and the Brown Rat, the latter called the 

 Norway Rat. Historically, the mouse takes the precedence, figuring in the literature of remote 

 antiquity, while the rat has been only known to modern times. The mouse is only mentioned 

 incidentally in the Scriptures as unfit for the Hebrew to eat — that is in the Levitical law; but , 



