NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 337 



water in the vicinity, and reminding one of the alarming 

 increase of this animal during the early settlement of the 

 islands. These, however, it is said, disappeared in a 

 mysterious and sudden manner, difficult to be accounted 

 for. There can be little doubt the disappearance of this 

 threatened pest of Rats was due to the prevalence of 

 drought. 



Let us hope that the famished Rats of Hamilton fared 

 better than their predecessors of old. 



February l$t/i, 1850. — In trapping Rats which occasion- 

 ally infest my premises, I have remarked so great a 

 difference in the appearance of some of them as to 

 induce a belief that two or more distinct species exist in 

 these islands. There can be no doubt that Mus decu- 

 manus, the common brown Rat, with its whitish belly, is 

 one of them ; and I have trapped a very white-bellied Rat 

 that was of a red colour above, which may possibly be 

 another species. The other is a smaller animal, about 

 fourteen inches long, including the tail, of a dark lead 

 colour inclining to black, particularly on the upper parts, 

 and entirely free from white. Head more rounded, or 

 roman shaped, and ears much larger than in the brown Rat. 

 Indeed, I am very much disposed to think this lesser Rat 

 is Mus rattus, the old black Rat of Europe, which I have 

 often destroyed near Abbeville, in France. I must 

 endeavour by further observations to decide this point. 



August 26th, 1884. — On this day I received a printed 

 copy of the "Mammals of Bermuda," from the pen of my 

 friend, John Mathew Jones, of Waterville, in Nova Scotia ; 

 printed by the Smithsonian Society, of Washington, 

 United States. 

 22 



