THE PEST OF RATS 7 
The early history of the brown rat is prac- 
tically unknown. Various modern writers have 
asserted that it came originally from Persia 
or India; but W. T. Blanford, a leading zodlo- 
gist: of British India, states that it is at pres- 
ent unknown in Persia, and that, as concerns 
India, the black rat is the generally distributed 
species, while the brown rat is found only 
along the coast and the navigable rivers. This 
seems to imply that the latter is a compara- 
tively recent immigrant into India; and other 
evidence seems to show that its original home 
was northward of the Himalayan ranges. Its 
resistance to cold supports this hypothesis. 
It seems to have entered Europe first by cross- 
ing the Volga into Russia in hunger-driven 
hordes in 1727, but it reached England from 
some eastern port a year or two later, coinci- 
dent with the accession of George I to the 
British throne. The general, but erroneous, be- 
lief in Great Britain that it was introduced 
from Norwegian timber-ships gives it the name 
‘‘Norway’’ rat there, as I explained in my. Life 
of Mammals. ‘‘It reached our eastern ports in 
1775 and was popularly credited to the hated 
