Rats
Original title: Ratos
Describes the rats and mice of Madeira, all introduced at colonisation, and a rat on Selvagem Grande that preys on shearwaters.
The rats known in Madeira are Mus rattus, M. norwegicus and M. musculus, the last of these species having already been noted on page 412 of volume II. M. rattus, or black rat, and norwegicus, or brown rat, are both common in Madeira, where they cause great damage; the Municipal Councils once adopted certain measures to destroy them.
Both the house mouse and the two species we have just mentioned are imported animals, and it is likely that they reached the archipelago at the time of colonisation.
On Selvagem Grande (‘great wild island’) there is a species of rat, perhaps Mus bárbaros, which destroys the eggs of the calcamar (see that entry) and does not hesitate to attack this bird, despite its strong beak.
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 01
- Selvagem Grande
Funchal · Selvagens. Home of a rat that destroys shearwater eggs.
Selvagem Grande is the largest island of the Selvagens group, with cisterns, springs and shelters; its highest point is the Pico da Atalaia and the two Palheiros rocks lie nearby. The Elucidário notes its limestone and selenite deposits and characteristic volcanic bombs, and records that it is the only locality of the fossil genus Cabralia. Its geology was studied by Adolfo César de Noronha and in a 1911 paper by Gagel, it was the subject of one of Somerville's 1915 charts, and rodents there prey on seabird eggs.