THE BLACK OR SHIP RAT 579 



Earlier British writers knew only one rat, viz., rattus, which Ray 

 called " The Rat." In the earlier editions of Pennant (1766 and 1768), 

 and in Berkenhout (1769), the Common Rat of the present day makes 

 its appearance as the " Norway Rat," rattus being still the " Common 

 Rat." Late in the eighteenth century (from Pennant, 1792 onwards), 

 the two animals became known as the " Black " and " Brown " rats, and 

 there has since been no change of usage. These names are not, how- 

 ever, very appropriate, since there are black varieties of the " Brown 

 Rat," while a brown form of the "Black Rat" is very common or 

 universal in several Eastern countries, and is well known as the 

 " Alexandrine Rat." At the present time the most appropriate names 

 for the two animals would seem to be the " Common Rat " and " Ship 

 Rat," thus emphasising their chief British characteristics, and avoiding 

 the ambiguities of terms based on differences of colour. 



Local names : — 



(Non-Celtic) :—" Blue Rat" of Orkney and Channel Islands. 



(Celtic) : — Irish — Franncach = " Frenchman " ; or luch fhranncach = 

 "French -mouse"; luchog mkor="hig mouse" (as in Clare Island, 

 Colgan, Proc. R. I. Acad., xxxi., 4, 22, 191 1) ; ga/luck = " foreign mouse" 

 (C. M. Robertson) ; raftan, from English ratten. 



Scottish Gaelic — Radan (C. H. Alston), or rodan, from the English 

 "rat"; radan dudk = " hl&ck rat" (C. H. Alston). 



M&nx—Roddan = " rat." 



Welsh — Llygoden ffrengig or llygoden _^m««^=" French-mouse " ; 

 llygodenfawr="h\g mouse." 



Cornish — logosan vras = "h\g mouse." 



The name " French-mouse," although perhaps at first used in its 

 literal meaning,^ soon came to signify, at least in Ireland, merely 

 " foreign mouse " (cf. Irish eunfrancach = " the French bird " = the turkey ; 

 and Welsh crian ffremzg=" French, nut " = walnut); later the epithet 

 was dropped, and both rat and turkey became known to the Irish 

 simply as francach. Much useful and interesting information is 

 collected in D. Comyns's Irish Illustrations to Shakespeare, 1894. 



History and Distribution in Burope : — The Black Rat, using the 

 name to cover the wild forms as well, was not known to the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans. The occurrence of the word rat in Archbishop 

 ^Ifric's Vocabulary (cited above) perhaps indicates that this animal 

 was known to the English prior to 1000 A.D. ; but since the word rata 

 was the name of the House Mouse among the Provencals, it is possible 

 that a similar signification may have attached to the Anglo-Saxon 

 word. Some writers, as F. Cuvier {Hist. Nat. Mammiferes) and Tomes 

 (in Bell, ed. ii., 303), think that its establishment in Europe dates from 



' But, as Mr Cocks points out, the adjective " French " has long, and until quite 

 recently, been generally used for anything "foreign." 



