630 MURID^— EPIMYS 



belong to the present species. The behaviour of tame 

 norvegicus has been well described by Lataste, from whose 

 account the following particulars are largely drawn. They are 

 nocturnal and omnivorous ; lying in the nest curled up, the 

 head on chest, and sometimes vertically. They form stores 

 of provisions in their nests, females sometimes stealing the 

 goods of their spouses. Lataste describes it as the most 

 intelligent rodent examined, recognising its owner, licking him 

 and pretending to bite like a puppy ; it can be trained to draw 

 up food or drink with a chain, and to count up to four. Wild 

 rats are difficult to tame, being very fierce and intractable, 

 unless taken very young. They are variable in individual 

 character though usually friendly to each other, unless their 

 sense of property be violated. They are prudent without being 

 cowardly, and are much superior in brain to either Black 

 or Water Rats. Although so big and heavy they are still very 

 agile, and Lataste has killed them on the summits of the 

 highest Palms. They swim habitually, although their aquatic 

 powers are very inferior to those of the Water Rat. They are 

 " hard " rats — a fall of 2 metres causing no injury. They never 

 beat with the feet like Gerbillines, but utter cries when battling 

 or coupling ; Lataste describes the cry of grief as sec et ddsagrd- 

 able. The rut lasts only a few hours, and they are more violent 

 in coupling than are tame mice. Gestation lasts twenty-two 

 days, and is apparently unaffected by lactation. A few days 

 before the end of gestation the female prepares a new nest for 

 her family, and later she behaves as an excellent mother. The 

 male kills and devours strange young, but respects those 

 of a female with whom he has coupled ; these he regards with 

 seeming indifference — perhaps only on account of the maternal 

 jealousy, for he has been known to help in transporting them 

 when occasion required. 



Lataste (373-375) describes the post-natal development. 

 From his account it would appear that at the sixth day the 

 pink colour of the young rat changes, indicating the develop- 

 ment of hair. On the tenth day the back is white and 

 covered with fine hairs of i mm. in length ; at the fourteenth 

 day the eyes open, and on the sixteenth day the perforation of 

 the outer ear appears. On the seventeenth or eighteenth day 



