THE BARBARY MOUSE. 
Mus BarBarus. Linn. 
Tuese pretty little creatures are by far the most elegant 
of the troublesome and frequently destructive group to 
which they belong. They are moreover of very great 
rarity, at least in Europe, and do not appear to have 
fallen under the notice of any naturalist since the time 
of Linneus, who first described them in the Addenda 
to the twelfth edition (the last published by himself) 
of his Systema Nature. So completely have they 
escaped the researches of later zoologists that M. Des- 
marest has even ventured to suggest a doubt of their 
existence, a doubt which can now no longer be enter- 
tained, three living specimens having remained in the 
Society’s collection for upwards of a year. 
The genus Mus, as at present circumscribed, is re- 
stricted to those species of Rats or Mice which have 
