8 
An Eccentric Rat. 
For an introduction to this rat we are indebted to the observer 
by whose name it may fitly be honoured — Mr. E. J. Banfield, Honorary 
Keeper of Dunk Island, an island lying a little to the north of Card- 
well, in lat. 15, long. 145. Some while ago ihat gentleman aroused 
our curiosity by informing us that a rat upon the island made little 
or no nest for its young, but carried them about clinging to its back 
or to the outer side of its thighs — a habit, to say the least, very 
unusual among rats and mice of the genus Mus, The female first 
sent to us by Mr. Banfield as an example of the species had no young 
with her, nor were her mammae much in evidence : consequently, 
the advent of a specimen caught in the act of carrying young was 
awaited with interest. Fortune at length favoured our correspondent 
with an opportunity of placing the correctness of his observation 
beyond question. Of the second example procured by him, he 
writes : ** The other day my dogs turned out a rat which made its 
escape from them by climbing a shrub, and I was able to secure it. 
You will see that it has a pair of infants attached to the teats 
I chloroformed the mother, and noticed that the young lived some 
time after her." On arrival the young were found detached. The 
conical corrugated nipples are, compared with the size of the animal, 
very long : one, especially, 20mm. in length, calls to mind a marsu- 
pial teat. 
Mr. Banfield finds this rat to be gentle in disposition, never 
attempting to bite ; it is, therefore, fortunate for it that it is under 
the protection of one who conserves the native life of the island so 
strictly that he will not allow a gun to be fired on it. 
Uromys banfieldi, n.s. 
Habit short and full bodied ; size about half that of a Black Rat 
(M. rattus) ; limbs moderate in length, and rather strong ; teats 4. 
inguinal. Fur short, soft, the hairs simple, nearly uniform in length, 
a few only somewhat elongated ; whiskers moderate. Teeth much 
as in U. macropus, but in the lower jaw the second molar is the 
broadest ; in the upper it is nearly as broad and almost as long as the 
foremost. In the skull the cranium is thin-walled and translucent, 
the parietal ridges very feeble, the auditory bullae small ; the anterior 
root of the zygoma near the upper part of its root very slender ; the 
anterior edge of the root convex ; the incisive foramina broad and 
(on one side) reaching to the socket of the first molar. 
