1912'] Capture of Raleigh by the Whaef Eat 93 



rate, complaints began to come in to the newspapers about a 

 strange kind of rat that was overrunning Raleigh, and slaugh- 

 tering young chickens ad libitum, and most wonderful stories 

 became current about them. They were as big as cats; large 

 ones weighed three pounds ; whenever a hen and chickens were 

 placed in a rat-proof coop resting on the ground, the rats care- 

 fully surveyed the coop, and then dug tunnels underneath it, 

 always coming up exactly underneath the old hen, and killing 

 all her chickens without ever showing themselves. Wild as these 

 stories were, they had a foundation in fact, this species being 

 a most inveterate destroyer of small chickens. One of the 

 neighbors, for instance, only a few days ago left a chicken coop 

 open one night and the rats got no less than twenty-six of the 

 thirty chickens in the coop. 



They reached my vicinity, a mile from the Seaboard depot, 

 last August, and I have been catching specimens off and on ever 

 since. So far I have not lost any chickens by them, but there 

 is no doubt they are a most serious factor in chicken raising in 

 Raleigh at present. 



In habits they are strongly inclined to burrow, while the other 

 two species are climbers, a roof rat when disturbed preferring 

 to seek safety upwards, a wharf rat downwards. The largest 

 specimen I have weighed did not exceed a pound, and several 

 other big ones only reached 14 ounces. 



Why they have not overrun Raleigh before it is hard to say, 

 as they are known to have been at Beaufort as far off as 1870 

 (Coues), and at Newbern in 1885 (H. H. Brimley), while they 

 have been doubtless plentiful at Norfolk and Baltimore ever 

 since Raleigh has been in existence, and specimens have almost 

 certainly been brought in on freight cars every year. We hear 

 that they overran Kinston in a similar manner some years ago. 



So far as my premises were concerned, the roof rats had ap- 

 parently left before the wharf rats came in. It is known how- 

 ever that the roof rat interbreeds with the black rat, and it is 

 claimed that it also does with the wharf rat. However that may 

 be, I have caught several specimens since last fall that were ap- 



