114 RAT. Class I. 



young, near a chimney ; and improves the warmth 

 of it, by forming there a magazine of wool, bits of 

 cloth, hay or flraw. It breeds frequently in the 

 year, and brings about fix or feven young at a time: 

 this fpecies incrcafes fo fad, as to over-ftock their 

 abode •, which often forces them, through defici- 

 ency of food, to devour one another: this unnatural 

 difpofition happily prevents even the human race 

 from becoming a prey to them : not but that there 

 are inftances of their gnawing the extremities of 

 infants in their fleep. 



The greateft enemy the rats have is the weefel; 

 which makes infinitely more havoke among them 

 than the cat •, for the weefel is not only endowed with 

 fuperior agility; but, from the form of its body, can 

 purfue them through all their retreats that are imper- 

 vious to the former. The Norway rat has alfo 

 greatly lefTened their numbers, and in many places 

 almoft extirpated them : this will apologize for 

 a brief defcription of an animal once fo well known. 

 Descrip. Its length from the nofe to the origin of the tail, is 

 feven inches : the tail is near eight inches long : 

 the nofe is fharp-pointed, and furniflied with long 

 whilkers : the color of the head and whole upper 

 part of the body is a deep iron-grey, bordering on 

 black; the belly is of a dirty cinereous hue; the legs 

 are of a dufky color, and almoft naked : the fore- 

 feet want the thumb or interior toe, having only in 

 its place a claw: the hind-feet are furnilhed with five 

 toes, 



Among 



