302 



RODENTIA. 



MURIDjE. 



MORIDjE. 



BLACK RAT. 



Scotice,, iiATTON. 

 Mus rattus. (Linn.) 



Specific Character. — Greyish-tlack aliove, ash colour lieneatli ; ears half tlic 

 Icugtli of the head ; tail a little longer than the hody. 



Mus ralliis, Linn. Syst. Nat. Edit. xii. I. i^. 83, 12. Mull. 



Zool. Dan. Prod. p. 5, sp. 31. Ebxleb. Syst. 



p. 882, 2. Desmar. Mam. p. 800, sp. 476. Flem. 



Brit. An. p. 20. Jekyns, Brit. Vert., p. 32. Blas. 



Faun. Deutsch. 1, 317. 

 ,, domesiicus major, Eat, Syn. Quad. p. 217. 

 AW, BuFFON, Hist. Nat. VII. p. 238, t. xxxvi. 



/Slack Sat, Penn. Brit. Zool. I. p. 113. Shaw, Gen. Zool. p. 32, 



t, exxx. 



The old English or Black Rat, which has now become 

 a rare animal in this country, was, previously to the 

 introduction of its more powerful congener and persecu- 

 tor, the Brown Ratj as numerous and as extensively dis- 

 tributed as that species has since become. It does not, 



