596 MURIDiE— EPIMYS 



behaves certainly as a dominant to frugivorus, and is therefore in all 

 probability dominant to alexandrinus as well ; lastly, having regard 

 to the present mixed condition of the two " wild " races in Egypt, it is 

 probable that the first immigrants to western Europe from the Near 

 East comprised representatives o{\)0'(h frugivorus and alexandrinus. 



In this work three ^ sub-species are described as British, viz., 

 E. rattus rattus, Linnaeus ; E. rattus alexandrinus, Geoffroy ; and E. 

 rattus frugivorus , Rafinesque : — 



(i.) The Black Rat. 



Epimys rattus rattus, Linnaeus. 



1758. Mus RATTUS, Carolus Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., loth ed., 61, and 12th ed., 83, 1766 ; 



described from Upsala, Sweden ; of most subsequent authors. 

 1800. M[us] r[attus] ALBUS, ater, CINEREUS, and MACULATUS, J. M. Bechstein, 



Pennant's Allgem. Uebersicht d. vierfuss. Thiere, ii., 494 and 713. 

 1833. Mus TECTORUM, van FULIGINOSUS, Bonaparte, Iconogr. Fauna Ital., i., fasc. 



3, pi. xxii., fig. I (name on plate only) ; described from Italy. 

 1842. Mus suBCiERULEUS, Lesson, Nouv. Tabl. du Rigne Anim., Mamm., 138 ; 



described from Rochefort, Charente-Inferieure, France. 

 1867. Rattus domesticus, with the races fuscus, varius, fulv aster, albus, 



and ATER, L. Fitzinger, Sitzungsber. kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien., math-nat. CI., Ivi., 



(i) 64 ; described from Austria, Hungary, and Germany. 

 igo2. Mus ALEXANDRINO-RATTUS, V. Fatio, Revue Suisse de Zool., x., 402 ; 



described from Ticino, Switzerland (see Mottaz, Bull. Soc. Zool. de Geneve, i., 



163, 1908). 

 1905. Mus rattus rattus, J. G. Millais, Zoologist, June, 204 ; M. {Epimys) rattus^ 



Trouessart. 

 1905. Mus rattus ater, J. G. Millais, Zoologist, June, 205 ; described from London, 



England; type a male, No. 5.7.28.1 of British Museum collection; M. {Epimys) 



rattus ater, Trouessart. 

 1908. Epimys RATTUS, Satunin, Mitth. Kauk. Mus., Tiflis, iv. Lief. 1-2, 112. 

 1912. Epimys rattus rattus, G. S. Miller ; Catalogue, 853. 



The Black Rat has figured in books as Glis (Jonston, Quadr., 1 14, 

 1657) and Sorex (Hoefnagel, Archetypa, 3, tab. iii., 1592). Gesner men- 

 tions it {Quadr., 731, 1551) as "Mus domesticus major, quern vulgo 

 rattum vacant''' ; it is "Mus Major seu Sorex" in Merrett [Pinax, 167, 



1 The decision to regard E. r. frugivorus as distinct from alexandrinus has been 

 reached since the key on p. 377 was drawn up ; clause A of the section dealing with 

 E. rattus should read : — 



(A) Upper side brownish. 



(a) Ventral hairs white to bases {E. rattus frugivorus'). 

 (J>) Ventral hairs with slaty bases (£■. rattus alexandrinus'). 



