16 MURID.E. 



Many years ago, I noted that numerous specimens, sent to me from 

 stack-yards in the North of Ireland, were larger, lighter in colour, and 

 more handsome than those found in houses. The Kev. L. Jeiiyns has 

 since published the following remark in his " Observations in Natural 

 History" (1846), p. 74:— 



" The colours of the common mouse are naturally extremely bright, and can 

 hardly be judged of from individuals found in houses, which contract more or 

 less of a dingy hue from the dirt of buildings and the nature of the recesses 

 they frequent. To see these colours in perfection, we should have recourse to 

 mice found in stacks, which are often so remarkable for their bright yellow tinge, 

 that I once thought they might prove to be of a distinct species. This is due 

 to an annulus of yellow surrounding each hair on the upper parts, a little below 

 the extreme tip, which in the domestic mouse is rarely noticeable." 



The Black Rat, 3Ius rattus, Linn. 



This rat, which once prevailed from North to South of the island, is now 

 almost wholly extinct everyAvhere. It is not considered indigenous to 

 Great Britain any more than the common brown rat, Mus deciimanus 

 (Bell's Brit. Quad.). Both are believed to have been introduced to 

 Europe from the East. 



I have received notes of the occurrence of black rats at Ballyheigne 

 Castle (County Kerry) ; Youghal (County Cork) ; and Crowhill (County 

 Armagh) ; but have no proof that they were of this species. Seven or 

 eight of the latter were killed at Talaght, near Dublin, in February, 1834, 

 one of which I saw in Mr. Warren's collection. 



Colonel Portlock informed me, in 1840, that a specimen of the 3Ius 

 rattus was sent to the Ordnance Museum, from Portglenone (Co. Antrim), 

 by the late Archdeacon Alexander, who stated that they were tolerably 

 abundant there. 



In December, 1842, Mr. Edward Benn, of Glenravel, forwarded to me 

 one of these animals killed in his neighbourhood ; and Dr. Harvey, in 

 the Fauna of Cork, p. 2, notes, regarding the species : — " In old build- 

 ings, in the northern parts of the city of Cork, near Garryclonne, &c., 

 rare." There is no doubt of these being the true Miis rattus, and not 

 black varieties of 31. decumanus, which are sometimes mistaken for it, as 

 Dr. Harvey, in a letter to me, observed, that " they were much smaller, 

 more delicate in the limbs, and altogether strikingly different from the 

 brown rat." 



Mus Hibernicus, Thompson. 



I made the following commimication, on this species, to the Zoological 

 Society of London, in 1837, in the proceedings for which year it was 

 published : — 



"Mus Hibernicus^{lrish. Rat). — On questioning a person, some j'ears ago, 

 respecting a black rat which he had seen in the North of Ireland, my curiosity 

 was excited by the statement that it had a white breast. In autumn last, a 

 similar description was given me of one that had been caught, some time before, 

 in Tollymore Park (County of Down). Mr. R. Ball, of Dublin, informs me 

 that black rats, with the breast white, have been reported to him as once com- 

 mon about Youglial (County of Cork), though they are now very rare or perhaps 

 extinct. But until April last, when a specimen was sent from Rathfriland 

 (Coimty of Down) to the Belfast Museinn, I had not an opportunity either of 

 seeing or examming the animal. This individual diflers from the M. rattus, as 

 described by authors, and also from specimens preserved in the British INIuseum, 



