130 p. : ill., maps ; 27 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 124-130)."The native Australian Rattus are represented by five species and 14 subspecies. The progenitor of these native Rattus appears to be an ancestral form of R. lutreolus which gave rise to two major lines. One line represents the forest species, R. fuscipes and R. leucopus, and of these, R. fuscipes appears to have given rise to R. leucopus through a R. f. coracius-like ancestor. The other major line is composed of the grassland species, R. sordidus and R. tunneyi. The link between these two is postulated as being through the two subspecies R. t. culmorum-R. s. sordidus. Rattus tunneyi tunneyi is the most distant subspecies from the R. lutreolus-type progenitor along this line, and R. leucopus cooktownensis is the most remote along the line of forest forms. Rattus exulans subspecies, which occurs within the political boundaries of Australia probably as a result of human biochore dispersal, is included in this study chiefly because it has been allied with native Rattus on occasion in previous investigations. We recognize four subspecies of Rattus fuscipes: R. f. fuscipes (synonyms = R. f. mondraineus and R. f. glauerti), R. f. greyii (synonyms = R. murrayi, R. greyii ravus, R. greyii peccatus, and R. greyii pelori), R. f. assimilis, and R. f. coracius (synonym = R. manicatus); two subspecies of Rattus leucopus: R. l. leucopus (synonym = R. l. mcilwraithi) and R. l. cooktownensis; three subspecies of Rattus lutreolus: R. l. lutreolus (synonyms = R. vellerosus, R. l. cambricus, and R. l. imbil), R. l. velutinus (synonym = ?Mus tasmaniensis), and R. l. lacus; three subspecies of Rattus sordidus: R. s. sordidus (synonyms = R. conatus and R. youngi), R. s. villosissimus (synonym = R. villosissimus profusus), and R. s. colletti; and two subspecies of R. tunneyi: R. t. tunneyi (synonyms = Mus woodwardi, R. melvilleus, and R. tunneyi dispar) and R. t. culmoram (synonyms = R. culmorum vallesius, R. culmorum austrinus, and R. culmorum apex)"--P. 5
