86 Fauna Italica. 
pellation the poor animal most probably does not deserve. Its name 
drawn from antiquity would have been more appropriate in every 
respect why not Talpa aspalax or Talpa Aristotelis ? 
The habitat is probably the same as that of the C. melanogaster, 
but is not yet exactly ascertained. 
In the third number we have a species of rat, which in Italy re- 
presents the Mus rattus, the old English rat, now so nearly extinct. 
Neither species are indigenous in their respective countries, nor of 
long standing, although their origin and time of introduction are 
not certainly known. Like the black rat its territories have been 
invaded by the Mus decumanus (our common rat), but, being stronger 
and more courageous than its congener, it has escaped extermination 
by that ruthless race. In many places they occupy the same ground, 
but are at all times in a state of determined hostility. The Italian 
species differs from M. decumanus in the length of the tail, which 
is greater than that of the head and body together, and from M. 
rattus with which it has that characteristic in common, in colour 
and other particulars. It would appear to resemble the M. Alex- 
andrinus of Geoffroy, an Egyptian species, but the Prince has never 
been able to compare them together. We owe the separation of 
this species from that of M. rattus, with which it had always been 
confounded, to Professor Savi. The name of M. tectorum, equi- 
valent to that of the trivial one in Tuscany, has been assigned to it, 
from its living a good deal about the roofs of the houses. It sallies 
into the gardens during a part of the year, and in general, haunts dry 
situations, differing from the M. decumanus, to which every one wet 
or dry seems alike indifferent. 
The region inhabited by it seems to be that south of the Apen- 
nines, the M. rattus occupying the plain of Lombardy and circum- 
jacent countries. The origin is unknown, as before mentioned, and 
its introduction modern. The ancients appear only to have been ac- 
quainted with the common mouse (Mus musculus) ; but we have 
no doubt, it, has with so much of good and evil been imported from 
the East. 
In a subsequent number we have an account of the Arvicolae, field 
rats and mice, which are properly separated from the Mures, or those 
addicted to living in or about habitations. 
The Mus terrestris of Linnaeus, Arvicola terrestris of our author, 
which was supposed to be principally confined to the neighbourhood 
of Strasburg, is common in many parts of Italy, especially near Gros- 
seto, a district in the maremme of Tuscany, which was an almost 
uninhabitable marsh until very lately, when extensive drainage has 
