Volume 22, Plate XXIV / Mammalia (Mammals)

Brown Rat

Mus decumanus

Larger and more powerful than the black rat, with rather elongated full body, short limbs, pointed head, short ears, and long slender scaly tail, the upper parts reddish-brown and the under greyish-white. Introduced about 1730 and now dispersed throughout the island, it infests houses, drains, quays, farms, and even distant islets, feeds on almost every animal and vegetable substance with ruinous destructiveness, is extremely prolific and cunning, and migrates in bodies when food fails.