OCCASIONAL NOTES.
Black Rat in Cornwall.—On August 9th I killed a Black Rat in the cliff at Prussia Cove, Marazion. The dentition was that of an adult, but the animal was about half the size — or a little more — of an ordinary rat, black all over, except the tip of the tail, which was white. The eyes were very prominent, feet large, skin under the fur very white, and the insides of the ears white and heirless. The tail was covered with smooth small hair throughout its length, and was longer than the body and head. Beyond all question it was not a common rat, and from the above description it will be seen that in many respects it resembles the Old English Black Rat, which, although rare in this district, is not extinct. The fishermen here identified it as one of a species which escaped from the wreck of the Italian grain-laden ship ' Espagnol.' She was wrecked in Acton Cove, about a mile from this place, some three or four years ago. Immediately afterwards the whole of the surrounding district was swarming with these little rats. One man told me that his cat brought thorn in day after day for a fortnight ; another had a terrier dog which became clever at finding and killing them, and so on. I have no work on the Mammalia with me, and therefore describe the rat as I saw it. — Thomas Cornish (Marazion).
[Might not this be the Mus alexandrinus of Southern Europe, considered by M. de lisle to be a geographical race of Mus rattus, and the older or parent breed? See Bell's 'British Quadrupeds,' 2nd ed., p. 306, note.—Ed.]
"Bribe-Buck."—In 'The Zoologist' for September (p. 326) Mr. Reeks asks the derivation of "bribed," as applied to the quartering of a buck. I would suggest that "Divide me like a bribe-buck" may be paraphrased as, "Portion me off like a buck when it is cut up," — "bribe" being derived from the Anglo-Saxon brytan, to break ; the "breaking" of the deer being a term frequently used for quartering. In that old romance-poem "Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight" (date about 1360), there are most detailed and interesting descriptions of a deer hunt, a wild-boar hunt, and a fox hunt. In speaking of the breaking of the deer, the following line occurs (l. 1339):—
"Sithen britned thay the brest and brayden hit in twynne."
Our own "bribe" (= undue reward) comes from the same root, brytan, through the Low Latin briba, a scrap of bread, " bribe" having the primitive idea of the scraps of bread or leavings after meals ; old French briber = to beg. Hence (1) favours or alms bestowed on the poor, (2) rewards generally, then (3) rewards given or offered for corrupt purposes. — Edward A. Fitch (Maldon).
[It appears to us that the word "bribe," or as some editors of Shakespeare read it "brib'd," must be derived from the French briber, to steal, in which
