446 
SPANISH-TOWN. 
Rat has a good deal of fulvous intermingled 'with 
grey in its coat, and though it is at this time by far 
the most numerous of these vermin, it is of com- 
paratively recent importation. The negroes are said 
to distinguish it by the name of the George Rat. 
This name is a curious coincidence -with the historic 
scandal that, under the name of the Hanoverian 
Rat, assigns a similar introduction to the ship that 
brought the Bruns'wick family to the British shores. 
It is larger than the Black Rat, and has a fur harsh 
and short. This is the common House Rat ; out of 
doors it is the pest of the corn-field and the cane- 
piece ; it inhabits the pinguin fences. A gentleman 
informs me that on a plantation of "which he was 
overseer, the annual number taken, from accounts 
minutely kept in paying premiums for their destruc- 
tion, was 12,000 of these Rats, through a succession 
of years. ^ 
Of the Cane-piece Rat I can learn nothing, ex- 
cept that it is supposed to be the animal commonly 
spoken of as the Charles Price Rat. It is unusually 
large.” 
Further inquiries gave reason to believe that no 
connexion existed between Sir Charles Price’s im- 
portation and the Rat of the cane-fields, or any Rat 
at all, beyond vulgar rumour. My friend remarks 
in a letter of April 22nd, 1847; — ‘‘ You remind 
me that no satisfactory history has been given of the 
animal Sir C. Price introduced into the colony, out 
of which grew the story of the Charley Price Rat. 
I had a conversation some short time ago with his 
great-grandson Mr. George Price, of Worthy Park, 
