1863. | A memoir on the Rats and Mice of India. 339 
not seen it from any other part of the island. “No doubt,” he adds, 
the Black Rat has been introduced by ships which frequent the vari- 
ous ports of the island.” This, and not M. prcuMANUS, Is said to 
be the species which has overrun New Zealand, and is there suppos- 
ed to have exterminated the frugivorous native Rat of the country, 
stated to have been of frugivorous habits.* The J. ratius v. ratioides 
of Hodgson, Dr. Gray refers to M. inpicus, Geoffroy. I% is thus 
described. 
“<M. rattoides, H. Black Rat of Nepal ag similar to the Black Rat of Hurope, 
as the foregoing, [M. brunneusculus, | is to our Brown Rat, and bearing in Nepal 
the same relation the one to the other as in Hurope. Above, dusky or blackish 
brown; below, dusky hoary. Limbs dark, fingers pale ; tail decidedly longer than 
the body and head; long piles sufficiently numerous. Snout to vent 7% in. , 
z3 weight 5 to 7 oz.” 
tail 8$; head 17 ; ears §; palma 12; planta 15 
Specimens presented by Mr. Hodgson to the British Museum are marked as 
«A. B. Reddish, bad state. C.B. Rather brown, not good state. G.I. Three 
skulls, J? Var. darker, with whitish bristles, no hind-feet. MW. brunneusculus, 
Hodgson H. (?)” 
* Referring, however, to the ‘ Mauna of New Zealand’ in Dieffenbach’s work, 
I find that he cites Mus rarrus, L., with a note of doubt; and adds—‘‘ It would 
be interesting to see whether it is the Huropean, the Indian, or the New Holland 
Rat, that has been introduced, or if there may not be more than one kind.” 
What he means by the Hwropean or the Indian Ratis not so clear. But he adds 
—‘ There exists a frugivorous native Rat, called Kiore maori (indigenous Rat) 
by the natives, which they distinguish from the Hnglish Rat, (not the Norway 
Rat), which is introduced, and called Kiore pakia (strange Rat). On the former 
they fed very largely m former times; but it has now become so scarce, owing 
to the extermination carried on against it by the Huropean Rat, that I could 
never obtain one. A few, however, are still found in the interior, viz., at Rotu- 
rua, where they have been seen by the Rev. Mr. Chapman, who described them 
as being much smaller than the Norway Rat. The natives never eat the latter, 
It is a favorite theme with them to speculate on their own extermination by the 
Huropeans, in the same manner as the English Rat has exterminated their indi- 
genous Rat.” (Dieflenbach’s Travels in New Zealand, &ec., 11. 185.) 
Mr. ¥. T. Buckland, however, qucting the Field newspaper, on the subject of 
the imported Rat of New Zealand, mentions that ‘‘ with the exception of a 
small species of Rat, now nearly extinct, having been all but exterminated by 
the importation of the common Norway Rat, there is not a single indigenous ani- 
mal [mammal] in the country; the Rats have become a serious nuisance.” 
(Vide, however, p. 168 antea regarding a small aquatic furred quadruped not 
improbably an ORNITHCRHYNCHUS.) 
Of Mus ravrus, Mr. Buckland writes—“ The Black Rat, or as it is sometimes 
called the old English Rat, does not seem to be an aboriginal occupier of the 
British soil. The earliest mention of it is by Genver, in his Historia Animaliwm, 
published at Zurich ubout the year 1687. tis probable that it was introduced 
into Britain from FWrance, the Welsh name for it being to this day, as I have it 
from a gentleman of Welsh extraction [lyyoden Frenziz,—the ‘* french mouse,’ ” 
Certainly, the remains of neither Mus ravrus nor of M. pEcuMANUS have been 
found fossil in the British island, as those of ARVICOLA AMPHIBLA are so abund- 
antly, 
