10-1 NATURAL HISTORY. 



The BROWN RAT, sometimes called the Norway Rat, is the 

 species usually found in England. It was some years since 

 imported into this country, and from its superior size, strength, 

 and ferocity, has so completely established itself, and expelled 

 the original Black Rat, that it is very difficult indeed to find 

 a Black Rat in any part of England. Waterton's sympathies 

 are much excited in favour of the original rat, and his anger 

 is great against the invader. He says of the Brown Rat : 



" Its rapacity knows no bounds, while its increase is pro- 

 digious, beyond all belief. But the most singular part of its 

 history is, that it has nearly worried every individual of the 

 original rat of Great Britain. So scarce have these last-men- 

 tioned animals become, that in all rny life I have never seen 

 but one single solitary specimen. It was sent some few years 

 ago, to Nostell Priory, in a cage, from Bristol, and I received 

 an invitation from Mr. Arthur Strickland, who was on a visit 

 there, to go and see it. "Whilst I was looking at the little 

 native prisoner in its cage, I could not help exclaiming, ' Poor 

 injured Briton! hard, indeed, has been the fate of thy family! 

 in another generation, at furthest, it will probably sink down to 

 the dust for ever. !' : ' * 



The same amusing naturalist, being considerably annoyed by 

 the depredations on his provisions, and the unceasing clatter 

 that they kept up behind the panels of his sitting-room, after 

 trying various plans to extirpate them, at last thought of a 

 mathod, rich in the same humour with which most of his 

 actions are tinged, and as efficacious in its operation as amusing 

 in its idea : 



" Having caught one of them in a box trap, I dipped its hinder 

 parts into warm tar, and then turned it loose behind the hollow 

 plinth. The others, seeing it in this condition, and smelling 

 the tar all along the run through which it had gone, thought 

 it most prudent to take themselves off: and thus, for some 

 months after this experiment, I could sit and read in peace, 

 free from the hated noise of rats. On moving the plinth at a 

 subsequent period, we found that they had actually gnawed 

 away the corner of a peculiarly hard-burnt brick, which had 

 obstructed their thoroughfare." 



* Waterton's Essays, p. 212. 



