13 



we must also include the muskrat, which is now classed among 

 the meadow-mice, and not in the beaver family, as formerly. 

 They make six genera and twelve species. 



The jumping-mouse (one species), deer-mouse (one species), 

 wood-rat (perhaps) the meadow-mice and voles (three species), in 

 all six species, all believed to be in Connecticut, I will dismiss at 

 once as being non-historical. 



The common house-mouse {Mus musculus), and perhaps one 

 other species, are European. They may have arrived in this 

 country with the first cargo of grain from abroad. 



The black-rat {Mus rattus, or rat-mouse) is the common 

 " house-rat " of England. It is said to have made its advent to 

 America as early as 1550. It is smaller than the common rat, and 

 less vigorous and combative. When the common rat arrived the 

 black-rat was fought and expelled by it, and now it is probably 

 extinct in this State, and a few are to be found in New England. 



The common or Norway rat {Mus decumanus, or big mouse), is 

 said by Prof. Baird to have reached England in 1730, France in 

 1750, and America in 1775. It is conceded that it did not come 

 from Norway, and the evidence is nearly conclusive that it 

 reached England from China. Naturally, it was first discovered 

 (in America) at the wharves, where it first landed, and being a 

 good swimmer it received the name of " wharf-rat." And here, I 

 am able to produce evidence that ite reached America at least 35 

 years earlier than the date assigned to that event by Prof. Baird. 

 In the second volume of Town Votes of Wethersfield (under date of 

 Dec. 16, 1741), there is recorded a vote offering a bounty of two 

 pence per head for each of " the larger sort of rat called wharf 

 rat," killed in Wethersfield. 



We may add that " white rats " and "white mice " are not dis- 

 tinct species, but are as much freaks of albinism as the white 

 crow, etc. 



One more animal of the mouse family, the largest member of 

 it, remains to be mentioned. This is the muskrat, or, in Indian, 

 musquash. Its musky odor is indicated in its English name, and 

 the first syllable of its Indian name has nothing to do with the 

 Latin mus, in Mus rattus, etc. This animal, which has been trans- 

 ferred from the beaver family to the mouse family, is so common 

 hereabouts that I need not do more than mention it. Muskrats 

 are seen within Bushnell Park after every spring freshet. Its fur 

 is known in the fur trade as " river sable." 



The porcupine, an insectiverous creature, once an inhabitant 

 of Connecticut, probably has become extinct here. It may still 

 linger in Massachusetts, as it certainly does in northern New 

 England. And Linsley tells us that one was killed in Huntington 

 about 1840. 



