172 The Mammalia of Essex ; a Contribution towards a
Mus musculus. Common Mouse.—Who does not know
this foul-smelling, but nevertheless pretty little beast? It
abounds everywhere, and has followed man to all parts
of the world. Houses, buildings, and corn-ricks are its
favourite haunts, and it does not occur in this country
except in their vicinity. Its original home certainly was
not in Britain.
Mus rattus. Black Rat.—This, our oldest rat, was
abundant before the advent of the Brown Rat, called by
Walton and others the "Hanoverian." It is now almost
extinct, but still occurs about the docks and East End of
London. These may not be native examples, and probably
the race is kept up by escapes from the vessels in the docks
in the neighbourhood. The Black Rat is easily known from
the Hanoverian Rat by the slenderness and length of the
tail, and by the mouth appearing to be so far under the nose.
In habits and feeding there is much in common between the
two species, but Mus rattus in buildings confines itself to the
upper parts and roof, and Mus decumanus to the basements
and drains.
Mus decumanus. Hanoverian or Norway Rat.—This pest,
although placed amongst our native animals, did not make
its appearance in England until the earlier part of the
eighteenth century, doubtless brought hither by means of
merchant vessels from some southern country. Pennant
says from the East Indies,6 and he remarks with prophetical
intuition, "It has quite extirpated the common kind (Mus
rattus) wherever it has taken up its residence; and it is to
be feared that we shall scarcely find any benefit by the change
—the Norway rat having the same disposition, with greater
abilities for doing mischief than the common kind." At the
time when the name "Norway Rat" was applied to it, it was
not known in Norway at all. It was called the "Hanoverian
6 ["I suspect that this rat came in ships originally from the East
Indies ; a large brown species being found there called Bandicotes, which
burrows underground. Barbot (Churchill's Coll. Voy. 214) also mentions
a species inhabiting the fields in Guinea, and probably the same with
this." Pennant, 'British Zoology,' i. 117, (4th Edition, 1770.)—Ed.]