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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



leverets, and partridges, whenever they can, particularly 

 just after the fields are cleared of the corn, when their 

 appetites become sharpened. 



When I lived in the country, I knew a house, next- 

 door to a cheesemonger's in the village, which was so 

 infested with rats, that the maid-servants were posi- 

 tively afraid to go into the cellar, whether by night or 

 day ; and though traps were set and poisonous food laid 

 for them, and live pounds paid to ratcatchers, the 

 nuisance remained ; and eventually the people left the 

 house, for the sole reason of the rats. 



In my schoolboy days, it sometimes became necessary 

 to punish me ; and on one occasion I remember thrash- 

 ing one of my schoolfellows, and throwing a stinking, 

 dead rat in bis face, for some imagined grievance he 

 had done me ; when, on the circumstance becoming 

 known to my tutor, he set me to the task of composing 

 twenty-four lines of rhyme. I inquired upon what 

 subject I was to write ? His reply was, " Your subject) 

 sir, will be ' The Rat ;' and you will be careful to do it 

 without any allusion to the quarrel with your school- 

 fellow." 



I had two hours allotted me, in which to perform the 

 task. The following is an exact copy of my rhymes : 



" I've a tale to relate of a fine jolly rat. 

 On the daiutieat bits he lived and grew fat ; 

 He'd the range of this mansioD, above and below, 

 Though how he got entrance we never did know. 

 Upstairs and downstairs he roamed in the dark : 

 Not a room in the house but we traced his footmark. 

 If we had a nice relish, we wished for ourselves, 

 And, to keep it secure, put it high on the shelves, 

 His fine-smelling nose and impudent haste 

 Would lead him straight on, to obtain first taste. 

 After dinner, he always would eat Stilton cheese; 

 Eor Dutch would never his palate please. 

 The choicest of viands, the nicest of dishes— 

 In fact, there was nothing, however delicious. 

 But fell to the lot of this jolly old rat. 

 Which at last became so enormously fat, 

 That he waddled and wriggled — so they say- 

 In order to keep himself out of the way. 

 But, alas, poor brute! one morn in June, 

 He piped and squeaked a comical tune ; 

 For Patty, on closing the pantry-door, 

 Crushed his tail, and hurt him sore: 

 Then, seizing a knife, she cut off his head ; 

 And so the poor brute is dead, is dead ! " 



Having thus completed my task, I took the lines to 

 my tutor, a very stern man. I watched his countenance 

 narrowly, as he read them, and could plainly see he 

 was amused at something, spite of his endeavours to 

 look black. 



The next day he treated me with unusual kindness, 

 and gave me a half-day's holiday ; and on the following 

 day he made me send a copy of my verses to my father 

 and mother, each of whom, in return, sent me half-a- 

 crown for pocket-money, which, I need scarcely say, 

 was the first I ever received for a literary production. 



Rats have frequently been the subject of very inter- 

 esting description with members of learned societies. 

 For instance, in vol. xi. of the " Trans. Linn. Soc," 

 1815, is an interesting description, jvith engravings, of 

 the genus Bhis, belonging to the section of pouched 

 rats, by John Vaughan Thompson, Esq., F.L.S. It 

 appears that this anomalous rat is a native of the island 



of Trinidad, where it is understood not to be very un- 

 common, although it appears that, during the space of 

 ten years' residence there, Mr. Thompson met with only 

 two specimens. He describes it as of the habit and 

 size of the common rat ; the nose rather sharper ; the 

 ears naked and rounded, and of moderate size. The 

 feet have six callous tubercles beneath, are all five-toed, 

 the innermost toes, or thumbs, extremely short and 

 small, the whole armed with sharp claws, those on the 

 exterior and interior toes being small in proportion ; 

 tail about six inches long, scaly, with a few scattered 

 setose hairs. The testicles in the male are of very large 

 size, and prominently situated under the root of the 

 tail. The two upper teeth are placed without the rictus> 

 or opening of the mouth, which is not larger than to 

 permit a grain of Indian corn to pass through it. The 

 cheek-pouches are formed by a diiplicature of the 

 common integuments, open below, extending from the 

 base of the upper teeth to the throat, and as high as 

 the eye and ear. These cavities are lined throughout 

 with scattered whitish hairs, and formed in the same 

 manner as the abdominal pouch of Didelphis, and not 

 at all in the way described by Buffon, of the hamster 

 (Mus cricetus) and the other pouched rats hitherto dis- 

 covered. The body is covered with fine lanceolate 

 spines, declining towards the throat and belly into a 

 coarse setose hair, and everywhere intermixed with a 

 finer sort of hair. The whole of the upper parts of this 

 rat are of a purple-brown colour ; the lower part of the 

 cheeks, throat, inside of the limbs, belly, and under- 

 half of the tail are white ; and the upper half of the tail 

 is nearly black. 



It appears that the habits of this remarkable rat are 

 singular and curious. Where they are numerous, they 

 do incalculable mischief in barns and granaries, when, 

 not content with what they can eat on the spot, they 

 stow away and carry off in their cheek-pouches quan- 

 tities of grain, which they deposit in their retreats, for 

 " hard times," or when food is not so easily procured. 



In volume VII. of the Trans. Linn. Society 1804, is 

 a description of a monster species of rat, a native of the 

 East Indies, by Captain Thomas Hardwick, F.L.S. I* 

 is, however, the same species as that mentioned by 

 Pennant in his History of Quadrupeds (third edition), 

 vol. II., No. 377. It is also the same as that referred 

 to by Dr. Shaw in his General Zoology, under the nam e 

 3Ius Malabaricus.* 



The description in the Trans. Linn. Society is accom- 

 panied by a very good engraving, in full-sized figure, of 

 this peculiar animal, which is the largest of the known 

 species. It is, however, not exclusively belonging to 

 the coast of Malabar, but is better known in natural 

 history as Mus giganieus. 



The weight of the rat from which the drawing was 

 made was 21bs. IHoz. Its total length 26^ inches, of 

 which the tail measured, from root to tip, 13 inches. 

 The specimen described was a female : the male grows to 

 a larger size, and weighing 31b8. and upwards. 



* Mus egriseus, auriculis rotundatis nudis, digitis plantarum 

 exterioribus brevioribus. — Shaw's Zoology, Vol, II„ part I. 

 page 54, 



