CHARLES PRICE RAT. 
449 
ascribe its importation to that gentleman. The 
former (1756) under the head of “ Castor 1 ; cauda 
linear! tereti, the Water-rat, commonly called 
Price’s Rat,” says, “ These creatures, though the 
natives of some foreign land, are now grown very 
common in Jamaica.” He gives us no description, 
but distinguishes it from the House or Cane Rat.” 
Long observes, ‘‘ Four different species of Rats 
infest this island. The largest is commonly called 
the Charles Price Rat, and obtained its name from 
having been first observed here about the time when 
the late Sir Charles Price, Bart, returned hither 
from Europe. It is said to have been imported by 
a Danish ship belonging to Sancta Croix, which was 
driven into Kingston Harbour by stress of weather.” 
He considers it the same as the Water-rat of Europe, 
as it is manifest Browne had done before him, by 
his adoption of Linnaeus’ short technical description 
of that species. If the smallness of the ears and the 
red hue of the fur of Arvicola amphibius guided them 
to this identification, I should be inclined to con- 
clude that my Mus saccJiarivorus just described was 
the species indicated by them. Long mentions the 
total length of one as eighteen inches, which would 
well enough agree with mine. 
It is worth remarking, that there is a Rat of 
great size found in the Carribbean Islands, the Mus 
pilorides of Desmarest, which has the upper parts 
black, and the inferior parts white. It has not the 
dentition of the Old World Rats, but resembles, in 
the structure of its molars, the South American 
Rats grouped by Mr. Waterhouse under the generic 
