THE BLACK OR SHIP RAT 585 



much less common than the Brown Rat, to Macgillivray ; and the 

 latter, in 1838, said that "in Keith, which is at a greater distance 

 from the coast, it is not very uncommon," and that it could still 

 be procured in other inland towns and villages in Scotland. It was 

 stated by Charles St John ( Wild Sports in the Highlands, 76) to 

 be extinct in Moray in 1850, although plentiful there twenty years 

 before ; the Rev. G. Gordon {Zoologist, 1844, 424) said that it occurred in 

 this county in 1844, but he reported it to E. R. Alston as extinct in 

 1880. The small colony of black rats observed by Colonel Drummond- 

 Hay in i860, occupying a drain in the vicinity of Pitlochry (Bell, ed. ii., 

 303), may have been of the black race of norvegicus {hibernicus), or even 

 black water-rats {A. a. retd). But Millais saw, in 1879, two undoubted 

 Black Rats which had just been captured from a small colony dis- 

 covered in a shop in Dunkeld. In 165 1 it was stated that "a rat 

 cannot live in Sutherland." " There is not a ratt in Sutherland 

 . , . they die presently how soon they doe smell of the aire of the 

 country. But they are in Catteynes, the next adjacent province, 

 divyded onlie by a little strype or brook from Sutherland " {Hist. 

 Earldom of Sutherland, 1813; J. A. Harvie-Browne, in lit.). In the 

 Hebrides it is stated to be still extant on Benbecula (Harvie-Brown 

 and Buckley, 36). 



The Black Rat inhabited the Orkneys, where it was known as the Blue 

 Rat (J. WoUey, Zoologist, 1849, 2344; J. M. B. Taylor, Ann. Scott. Nat. 

 Hist., 1900, 181). Barry {Hist, of the Orkney Islands, 1808, 320) says that 

 it " was formerly numerous, and as destructive as the rest of the genus ; 

 but it has of late been confined to one or two of the islands, owing to 

 the Brown Rat, which has almost entirely extirpated them through the 

 rest of the country. In size and strength it is inferior to its adversary, 

 but not in its disposition to plunder ; and when once it has established 

 itself in a place, there are no means known of expelling it." In 181 3 

 Low {Fauna Orcadensis, 22) stated that it could still be found in South 

 Ronaldshay, whence Barrett-Hamilton received one from T. E. Buckley 

 in 1892 {Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist, 1892, 267). W. Evans informs us that 

 this colony was still in existence three years ago. 



In the Shetlands, Millais believes that it is frequently killed at 

 Lerwick. In 1904 he observed three dead specimens lying on a wharf 

 in front of a store on Whalsey ; these were Alexandrines (brown above, 

 with grey bellies) ; Mr Nicholson, the owner of the store, told Millais 

 that twenty years before these long-tailed rats were common, but they 

 subsequently died out ; in 1900 they were reintroduced by a German 

 vessel, and they had since become very numerous about his storehouses 

 and were a great pest. 



The Black Rat is believed to occur in Scilly, but we have seen 

 no specimens. Coward obtained all three sub-species of rattus, 

 VOL. II. 2 p 



