RATS AND PLAGUE. 16] 
great amount of attention that is given to the consideration of 
“sports,” and by too frequent references to those species of 
which the author has no personal acquaintance—the non-rattus 
rats. We are shown too at great length that which we know 
already, viz., that semi-domesticated rats, or rather, rats lving 
in a state of commensalism, are liable to great variation, and 
that Mus rattus in particular is an enormously plastic species. 
_In spite of this and though the unwisdom of naming new 
species from this group then living under artificial conditions 
is admitted, publicity is given to a description, under the name 
Mus brahminicus (now of Lloyd) of a New Species (?) which 
appears to be founded on a couple of piebald semi-albino house 
rats | 
It is not until we reach the section devoted to Burmah 
that rats approximating to Malayan forms come under con- 
‘sideration. 
It is noted, and this must be regarded as a concession to 
the systematist, that amongst many hundreds of Burmese 
vattus examined, not one was found which in colour and size 
resembled any of the Indian rats but that of the two species 
present the larger—a white-bellied brown-backed form—seems 
most nearly to be matched by Mus jalorensis, Bonhote, from 
the Malay Peninsula. 
In the Peninsula, however, Mus jalorensis, although not 
found as a rule far away from the neighbourhood of man is a 
country rat and the common house rat is a different animal 
with well defined characters. 
The small race is Mus concolor which, though a somewhat 
variable animal within limits, is a very distinct species. It 
formed at least 50 per cent of the total rats of Rangoon 
and at least 75 per cent of the true house rats: and here 
again, though, not so numerous in Malaya, it is of very com- 
mon occurrence both in town and country. It has not been 
recorded from India. 
It is interesting to compare with the Indian returns the 
occurrence of the various species as noted by the plague in- 
vestigators in Rangoon. Mus rattus together with Mus concolor 
R. A. Soc,, No, 57, 1910, “, 
jul 
