174 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



In Funafuti the native rat is described to me as having been 

 driven from the village, and indeed almost exterminated upon 

 the main islet by the foreign rat. Upon the other islets it exists 

 and in some cases swarms, but as these islets are not permanently 

 tenanted the rat can scarcely be regarded as a pest. 



It constructs its nest in the cocoanut trees, just at the base of 

 the fronds, and Mr. Hedley tells me that he frequently noticed 

 the rats peeping out of the matting that sheathes the butts of 

 the cocoanut fronds, and scampering about the heads of palms, 

 fifteen or twenty feet high. In pre-civilised times these rats 

 were a great plague to the natives, who did not use them as food. 

 By law each individual was at times obliged to catch and destroy 

 a set number of these vermin, for which purpose an ingenious trap 

 was used. 



NATIVE RAT. 

 Mus EXULANS, Peale. 



Mus exulans, Peale, U.S. Expl. Exp., Mamm., 1st Ed., 1848, p. 47. 

 (Plate viii., figs, la-/.) 



Fur fine, scanty, and of medium length ; colour warm brown, 

 reddish on the nape and back, basal half of the hair delicate grey, 

 the tips yellowish or brown. On the back the fur is mixed with 

 longer and comparatively thick hairs of bristly texture, these are 

 white or very pale yellow throughout their length, the extreme 

 tip only being dark brown. Muzzle and face warm brown ; the 

 hairs on the sides of the body are tipped with pale yellow with 

 no longer or darker hairs intermixed, The whole under surface 

 including the inside of the limbs white, fur pale grey at the base. 

 Ears rounded and of considerable breadth, but on being laid 

 forward they do not reach the eye. Outside of limbs coloured 

 like the back ; on the hind foot the colour extends scarcely 

 further than the heel leaving nearly all the foot white. Foot 

 and claw-pads very large. Tail longer than the head and body, 

 quite rat-like. Hairs longer than the scales, but not so long as 

 two scales, excepting towards the tip which is inclined to be 

 pencilled. Scales 9| to the centimeter; mammse 2*2 = 8. 



Skull of delicate proportions ; the nasals project considerably 

 beyond the line of the premaxillary supraorbital ridge thin but 

 very prominent, it becomes lower in the temporal region and is 

 little more than discernable above the aural aperture : condition 

 of occipital region unknown. The anterior palatina foramina are 

 somewhat broad and reach the anterior margin of the molar 

 alveoli. The anterior zygoma root is rounded above and the 

 front edge scarcely emarginate. 



