Class I. BROWN RAT. 143 



ears resemble those of the rat : the eyes are large 

 and black : the color of the head and whole 

 upper part of the body is a light brown, mixed 

 with tawny and ash-color : the end of the nose, 

 the throat and belly, are of a dirty white, inclin- 

 ing to grey : the feet and legs almost bare, and 

 of a dirty pale flesh-color: the beginning of the 

 tail of the same color as the back ; the rest of 

 the tail is covered with minute dusky scales, 

 mixed with a few hairs. 



This is the species well known in this king- History, 

 dom under the name of the Nonvay rat, but it 

 is an animal quite unknoAvn in Scandinavia, as 

 we have been assured by several natives of the 

 countries which form that tract, and Linnceus 

 takes no notice of it in his last system. It is fit 

 here to remark an error of that able naturalist 

 in speaking of the common rat, which he says 

 was first brought from America into Europe by 

 means of a ship bound to Antwerp. The fact 

 is, that both rat and mouse were unknown to the 

 new world before it was discovered by the Eu- 

 ropeans, and the first rats it ever knew, were in- , 

 troduced there by a ship from Antwerp.^' This 

 animal never made its appearance in England 



* Oyalles Hkt. of Chile in ChurehilFs foy. ii-i. 43, 



