130 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



powers of adapting himself to any surroundings, his 

 distribution is cosmopolitan. 



It is strange, therefore, that he did not reach this 

 country earlier. Pallas speaks of a great westward 

 movement of the brown rat, noticeable in 1727, when 

 they succeeded in crossing the Yolga and conquering 

 Russia and continental Europe. They reached Paris 

 in 1750. Euxleben and Professor Boyd Dawkins 

 give 1730 as the date of the arrival of the brown 

 rat in England. 



It will be agreed that this animal does some good 

 as a scavenger in sewers and elsewhere, but in 

 effecting this rats do an infinite amount of harm. 

 They are constantly undermining buildings and 

 stopping up drains, and causing all kinds of similar 

 •destruction and inconvenience. During the recent 

 alterations on the north side of the Strand it was 

 found that rats had done damage to the extent of 

 £5000. Behind the wainscot of the bandstand in 

 the Gaiety Restaurant were found the gnawed 

 remains of 1728 serviettes, and wine and beer bottles 

 had been removed to form sleeping places. 



The rat inhabitants of the London docks always 

 swarm in numbers, being not only increased by the 

 large families born there, but by constant fresh im- 

 portations. Men are employed to kill them and burn 

 their carcases under the eye of an inspector. A fine 

 of £2 is imposed on anyone taking away a rat alive. 

 These restrictions have been made, not only for the 

 purpose of keeping down the numbers of rats, but 

 as a precaution against the spread of bubonic plague. 



Formerly there was an ofiicial rat-catcher in every 



