MAMMALIA, 141 
+ 2. Mus pecumanus. (Linn.) The Brown Rat. 
Brown Rat. PENNANT, Arct. Zool., vol.i. p. 130. Gopman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 78. 
This very destructive animal came, according to the accounts of historians, from 
Asia to Europe about the beginning of the seventeenth century ; was unknown in 
England before 1730, and, according to Dr. Harlan, did not make its appearance 
in North America until the year 1775. Pennant, writing in 1785, says he has no 
authority for considering it to be an inhabitant of the new continent, although he 
thinks it probable that it must by that time have been carried thither in ships. It 
is now very common in Lower Canada ; but I was informed that in 1825 it had 
not advanced much beyond Kingston in Upper Canada. We did not observe it 
in the fur countries; and if it does exist there, it is only at the mouth of the 
Columbia River, or at the factories on the shores of Hudson's Bay. 
+ 3. Mus muscoius. (Linn.) The Common Mouse. 
Mouse. Pennant, Arcé. Zool., vol. i. p. 131. 
Mus musculus. Say, Long’s Exped., vol. i. p. 262. 
Common Mouse. Gopman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 84. 
I have seen a dead mouse in a storehouse at York Factory filled with packages 
from England, and it is probable that the species may have been introduced into 
all the posts on the shores of Hudson’s Bay; but I never heard of its being taken 
in the fur countries at a distance from the sea-coast. Mr. Say informs us, that 
it was introduced at Engineer Cantonment, on the Missouri, by Major Long’s 
expedition. 
