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Show 1897.] MR. E. R. WAITE ON THE SYDNEY BUSH-RAT. 859 no single instance was the lip of the shell touched. This habit of attacking the weakest part of the shell has not been learned by one colony of rats only, for Mr. J. A. Thorpe tells m e how in his garden at Paddington, another suburb of Sydney, the rats destroyed the molluscs in the manner described, to such an extent that whereas formerly they were a regular pest, few can now be found: the rats ensconce themselves beneath the broad foliage of the stag-horn ferns (Platycerium alcicorne), which forms a dry aud cosy shelter. In the original notice of this rat (Gould, M a m m . Austr. i. Introd. p. xxxv, 1863) the late W . Sharp Macleay described it as inhabiting the lofty eucalyptuses at Elizabeth Bay, where it " builds a nest among the branches with leaves and twigs like that of a bird." Mr. Fletcher describes to m e how he found a nest in the Linnean Society's gardens at Elizabeth Bay last November. It was in a tree, and taking it to be the work of a bird, he shook a supporting branch, whereupon a rat ran out. Air. George Masters has often found the nest of this rat high up in bamboos; the nests are usually larger than a football and are not only used as nurseries but also as permanent habitations. On one occasion Mr. Masters ousted nine full-grown rats from one nest, and several times four and five have been discovered occupying a common retreat. M y informant also tells m e that the rats gnaw holes in the bamboo-stems and take up their abode in the internodal chambers. H e thinks that these shelters are formed during the wet season in order to escape the rains, and although he has examined a considerable number, he has never found the semblance of a nest within the cavities. The hole is always cut immediately below a node, so that the chamber is entered from its upper part. These holes were never observed near the ground; they were generally thirty or more feet above it, and were frequently found when a bamboo was cut down. Mr. Thorpe is likewise quite familiar with the nests in the higher branches of the bamboos and also with the rat-bored stems; he is of the opinion that, after gnawing the holes, the rats occupy the chambers in order to avoid the midday heat. It is also possible that by this means they seek to escape the Native Cats (Dasyurus) and other predaceous animals. So far as is at present known, the distribution of this rat is very restricted-none of the places mentioned being more than three or four miles from the metropolis, while, up to m y personal acquaintance with it, it had only been recorded from Elizabeth Bay; this, together with Paddington, Petersham, and Summer Hill, is on the southern side of Port Jackson, whereas North Sydney, Mosman's Bay, and Hunter's Hill, whence we have one example, are on the opposite shore. [As I had always supposed from the original account of " Hapalotls" arborlcola, these rats not only belong to true Mus, as Mr. Waite rightly observes, but there appears every reason to believe that they are merely introduced ship-rats: that is, forms of |