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 A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK white and belonging perhaps to the same litter, were observed there at about the same time. Albinos are not very uncommon, and have several times been met with in the county. A white rat with black eyes was shot by Mr. G. Cornish on the banks of the Gipping at Ipswich about the year 1868 or 1869, and in February 1903 an adult which was of a smoky black colour all over was to be seen in the shop of Mr. Asten, taxidermist of Woodbridge. It had been caught at Boy- ton. 25 Black Rat. Mui rattus, Linn. Black rats have occasionally been reported to have been caught in old houses in Ipswich. Mr. H. C. Hudson of that town lately told the writer that when living in Fore Street, he used now and then to catch examples of this species, with which he is well acquainted, sometimes as many as three or four in a year. The last captured was in the summer of 189 1. One was caught in a house in Brook Street, Ipswich, about the year 1863 or 1864. Mr. Frank Norgate, in a letter to the writer, gives particulars of a black rat killed in January 1891 at a pea stack at Little Welnetham. His description of this animal, carefully taken down at the time of capture, agrees in most details with that given by Bell {Hist. Brit, ^ad.) of M. rattus, excepting that the tail was ' well covered with hair,' whereas in that species it is usually nearly naked. Through the kindness of the owner of this specimen, Willoughby Josselyn, Esq., the writer was allowed to examine it, but could not arrive at a decided opinion as to its species. Without having seen Mr. Norgate's notes referred to above, and taking into consideration the place of capture, one would I think be inclined to label this rat ' Mus decumanus (black variety).' Its form and appearance had probably under- gone considerable alteration through and since the process of stuffing, especially as regards the shape of the muzzle ; and both tail and ears seemed rather short for M. rattus. The animal being mounted by itself in a small glazed case, it was impossible to get a clear view of the feet. At Yarmouth the black rat seems to have increased rather than diminished in numbers since the Messrs. Pagets' list was published. It is there stated that ' This species still remains here, though its numbers are gradually decreasing ; it is now seldom found, except in the ceilings and upper stories of old buildings.' Mr. A. Patter- son (* Mammalia of Great Yarmouth and its Immediate Neighbourhood,' Zoologist, 1898, p. 305) writes : ' Than at the present moment the black rat was never more numerous at Yarmouth.' He further states that in 1895, when its numbers appeared to be increasing, it confined itself chiefly to the south-western part of the town, much of which is in the county of Suffolk. Mr. Patterson received over a hundred examples within a few months. Traffic with foreign ports tends here to keep up a supply of black rats, and prevents the species from dying out. [Alexandrian Rat. Mus alexandrinus, Dt Selys. On 9 May 1903 I received a black rat which had been caught on the premises of Messrs. Paul of Ipswich, corn merchants and importers of foreign grain. It was an adult female in good condition, with glossy shining fur. Mr. T. Southwell, who examined this animal, pronounced it to be a specimen of M. aUxandrinus, the continental form of our M. rattus ; in colour however it resembled the latter. The great length of the tail (nearly 9 inches), in comparison with that of the head and body, was very striking. Some of the hairs of the whiskers, which were very abundant, reached 2^ inches. The manager of the above-mentioned firm, to whom I am indebted for this specimen, stated that black and slate-coloured rats were not unfrequently caught in their warehouses and granaries.] 26. House Mouse. Mus musculus, Linn. Abundant everywhere, and, like the brown rat, always ready to adapt itself to any change of circumstance or situation. Thus in the matter of nest building, it turns to account any material it finds available. In a stack hay or straw is used, in the carpenter's shop shavings serve its purpose equally well, and in the house paper or rag of any kind is soon converted into soft and comfortable bedding. A nest found in a fowl house at Blaxhall was composed entirely of the bright buEF feathers or some Pekin bantams. Scarcely any animal multiplies faster than this species. The writer has records of three mouse's nests in Suffolk, containing respectively fourteen, seventeen and thirty-two young ones. In the last case more than one female had probably used the same nest as a nursery. In thrash- ing a wheat stack at Blaxhall in April 1881 a white mouse was killed with a litter of young ones, all of which were white, and like the mother had black eyes, and were therefore not albinos. Some of the young had both ears of a greyish colour, while in others only one ear was coloured. Most of them had also a small spot or two of the same tint at the root of the tail. In the spring of 1903 several mice of a cinnamon colour