362 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



rats do this, more or less ; but the red rat is fondest of his 

 neighbour's children. They are a pest to the farmer, too, 

 robbing the barley and wheat recently set, following the 

 drills, and completely ruining the crop, pulling the corn into 

 the hedgerows for better consumption. 



Their nests — made of old dead leaves — are said to be found 

 in the hedgerows ; and when they get a good size, they are 

 said to take to the corn-fields. I am told they are fond of 

 building their nests in the laid corn, or " by water-dikes in 

 thickish stuff." But the stoat is on their track whenever 

 he can be, for he seems to love to kill a rat beyond every- 

 thing. And, like most rats, I am told they get sores, and 

 grow mangy towards the beginning of summer. 



Rats of all kinds often get into a wherry, and they will 

 stay there if they can work from one end to the other, 

 for they never eat waterwards. I know an old wherryman 

 who once caught eighteen rats from a wherry by scattering 

 pollard, with gloved hands, over a trap, and on a plank lead- 

 ing to it. The first night the rats went a little way up the 

 planking ; on the second, a little way farther up ; and the 

 third night they essayed the pan, and the first got caught 

 in the steel-fall. 



It is a pity this cruel, wolfish, destructive family cannot 

 be blotted from the land ; for they work nothing but evil, 

 and bring misery and destruction to many a happ^^ animal 

 and bird — they are the criminals of beast life. 



