1. Powdered cantharides steeped in French brandy. It is said that rats are so fond of this that if a little be rubbed on the hands they may be handled with impunity.
2. Powdered assafoetida 8 grains, oil of rhodium 2 drams, oil of aniseed 1 dram, oil of lavender ½ dram. Mix by agitation.
3. Oil of aniseed ½ ounce, tincture assafoetida ¼ ounce.
4. Oil of aniseed ¼ ounce, nitrous acid 2 to 3 drops, musk (triturated with a little sugar) 1 grain.
These scents are not only rubbed on traps, but a few drops are mixed with the various rat poisons, of which perhaps the most efficacious is phosphorous paste.
[NO. 334. MUS ANDAMANENSIS.]
The Andaman Rat.
HABITAT.—The Andaman and Nicobar islands.
DESCRIPTION.—A little darker on the back than Mus decumanus, paler on the sides, and dull white below. "The long piles are at once distinguished by their flattened spinous character, which is also slightly the case in M. rattus, though much less conspicuously than in the present species. It would appear to be a burrower in the ground" (Blyth). Ears round as in the brown rat.
SIZE.—Head and body, about 8 inches; tail the same.
[NO. 335. MUS ROBUSTULUS.]
The Burmese Common Rat.