126 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



difference in the pelage of a particular corpse, and I 

 have carried it off to be skinned for the Whitechapel 

 Museum. One skin had hair on it of a rich jet 

 black, and was almost as soft and long as that of a 

 half Persian cat, so different from the hard coat of 

 a brown rat. As a possible museum specimen I 

 regretted deeply the absence of the tail, but these 

 appendages are taken bj the men who catch the rats 



Fig. 37.— The Black or old English Eat. (Photo, by H. C. 

 Wood, from a specimen in the British Mtisenm of 

 Natural History.) 



to the Mansion House, and they are there rewarded by 

 the Corporation for their efforts in slaughtering these 

 pests. The old English black rat is evidently the 

 blue-grey rat, or Northern Alexandrine rat, whose 

 ravages in granaries and malt-houses was bad 

 enough, but of the two evils we should certainly 

 prefer our old enemy to the brown rat, who is a much 

 more offensive, voracious, and carnivorous creature. 

 The old English rat is certainly attractive in form. 



