PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 129 
K. H. Bennett!, under the specific name of Mus tomp- 
soni, Ramsay, which A. R. McCulloch? has shown 
to be a synonym of Epimys rattus, gives a note on 
rats then infesting the western portion of New South 
Wales. They had first appeared as stragglers in the Ivan- 
hoe district in February, 1887. By the middle of April, the 
country west of Booligal to Wilcannia was swarming with 
them, all travelling southwards. So numerous were they, 
that their countless footprints obliterated overnight on the 
roads all marks of vehicles, or even of flocks of sheep. 
They moved about at night, hiding by day in rabbit- 
warrens, ete. As food they consumed seeds, pigweed and 
probably young rabbits. About the middle of May, the 
~main body had passed Ivanhoe. At the end of May, 
they were tolerably numerous along the river at Tilpa 
in the middle Darling. Near Cobar they were unknown. 
Previous to reaching Ivanhoe, they had been reported in 
Western Queensland. Floods in the Darling and other rivers, 
which occurred this year, did not stop their progress. 
Mr. Bennett remembered a similar invasion of rats in 
1864, a year when the Darling was also in flood. He was 
doubtful wiicther they were the same species as, in addition 
to living in burrows, they built large heaps of sticks, under- 
neath which were nests of soft grasses. They were accom- 
panied by large numbers of hawks (Hlanus scriptus) and 
owls, which preyed on them, but which were not numerous 
in 1887. In 1874, in the Barrier Ranges, he had seen rats 
inhabiting similar nests and also accompanied by E. scriptus 
and owls. 
The 1895 Visitation of the Rat Ascopharynx cervinus at 
Charlotte Waters—Spencer and Gillen’ refer to these mi- 
gratory hordes of rats in Central Australia and mention 
Bennett, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2), Il... 1887, p. 447. 
eawecutloch, mee, Aust; Must, Wi, 1907, p. 212: 
2Spencer and Gillen, Across Australia, I, p. 166. 
I—May |, 1918 
