R A T. 
327. Brown. Mus cauda longiffima, fupra di- Le Surmulot.,i& Buff on, viri. 206. 
lute fulvus, infra albicans. Le tab. xxvii. 
Hat de Bois. Briffon quad . 120. Norway rat. Br. Zool. I. gg. 
R. with the head, back and fides, of a light brown 
color, mixed with tawny and afh-coior: bread: and 
belly dirty white : feet naked, and of a dirty flefh- 
color : fore feet furnifhed with four toes, and a claw 
inftead of the fifth : length, from nofe to tail, nine 
inches; tail the fame : weight eleven ounces: is 
itronger made than the laft. 
Inhabits moft parts of Europe •, but was aftranger 
to that continent ’till the prefent century : came into 
Great Britain about forty years ago: not known in 
the neighborhood of Baris half that time. The 
fame animal with what is called in the Eafi-Indies a 
Bandicote , a large rat, which burrows under ground ; 
fo probably the fpecies was brought from thence in 
fome of the Indian fhips * • has reached Pruffia , but 
not the oppofite fide of the Baltic ; for Linnaeus takes 
no notice of it. 
Burrows like the water rat on the fides of ponds 
and ditches: fwims well, and dives readily: lives 
on grain and fruits, and will deftroy rabbets, poul¬ 
try and game : encreafes fail; brings from fourteen 
to eighteen young at a time : is very bold and fierce; 
* This may be the fpecies found in Guinea, called by Bar hot, 214 , 
Field Rats; which, he fays, are as big at cats. Bofman calls them 
wild rats. Barbot alfo mentions another, as long, but flenderer 
than the former; which the Negroes eat, and call Boutees , which do 
great damage to their corn. 
will 
