CHARLES PEICE EAT. 449 



ascribe its importation to that gentleman. The 

 former (1756) under the head of " Castor 1 ; cauda 

 lineari tereti, the Water-rat, commonly called 

 Price's Rat," says, *' These creatures, though the 

 natives of some foreigii land, are now grown very 

 common in Jamaica." He gives us no description, 

 but distinguishes it from the " House or Cane Rat." 

 Long observes, " Four different species of Rats 

 infest this island. The largest is commonly called 

 the Charles Price Rat, and obtained its name from 

 having been first observed here about the time when 

 the late Sir Charles Price, Bart, returned hither 

 from Europe. It is said to have been imported by 

 a Danish ship belonging to Sancta Croix, which was 

 driven into Kingston Harbour by stress of weather." 

 He considers it the same as the Water-rat of Europe, 

 as it is manifest Browne had done before him, by 

 his adoption of Linnaeus' short technical description 

 of that species. If the smallness of the ears and the 

 red hue of the fur of Arvicola amphihius guided them 

 to this identification, I should be inclined to con- 

 clude that my Mus saccharivorus just described was 

 the species indicated by them. Long mentions the 

 total length of one as eighteen inches, which would 

 well enough agree with mine. 



It is worth remarking, that there is a Rat of 

 great size found in the Carribbean Islands, the Mus 

 pilorides of Desmarest, which has the upper parts 

 black, and the inferior parts white. It has not the 

 dentition of the Old World Rats, but resembles, in 

 the structure of its molars, the South American 

 Rats grouped by Mr. Waterhouse under the generic 



