14 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



the Jersey pirates. Two mammifers, — both belong- 

 ing to the order of the Rodents, and both remarkable 

 for their fecundity, — the rat and the rabbit, profited 

 by the absence of human inhabitants, and disputed 

 the possession of these deserted rocks. When France, 

 yielding to her destiny, was compelled to submit to 

 the Treaties of 1815, Chausey began to be re-peopled, 

 and French and Englishmen, after their long contests 

 on the fields of battle, combined together against the 

 usurping quadrupeds. Guns, dogs, and traps Avere 

 all brought into requisition ; and to escape this war 

 of extermination, the rats took refuge in the western 

 islands, where they are suffered to remain unmolested 

 excepting at the time of the hay harvest. Not even 

 the remotest rocks, however, could serve as an 

 asylum for the unfortunate rabbits, for the Jerseymen 

 pursued them with their ferrets ; and now, the last 

 descendants of this once numerous population are 

 disappearing, one by one, before the attacks of these 

 formidable accents of destruction. 



The only representative of the class of reptiles 

 which I met with at Chausey was a pretty variety of 

 the grey lizard*, remarkable for the brightness of 

 its colours. Of birds, on the contrary, there were 

 numerous species. The sparrows, those never-falling 

 attendants on the footsteps of man, have estab- 

 lished tlielr general quarters in the ruins of the 

 old castle. t Troops of linnets and goldfinches pass 



* We have in France, according to Duges, five species of lizards : 

 (^Lacerta ocellata, L. viridis, L. velox, L. edwardsiana, L. stirpium, 

 and L. muralis.) The last of these, the grey lizard, that frequents 

 old -svalls, is the most common of all. 



f The Fringilla domestica, or common sparrow, is one of the most 



