CHAPTER XI 



RATS AND MICE 



We are concerned in this section with the Rats and Mice, animals 

 belonging to the Rodentia which do not seem to appeal to many 

 people, but whose life-histories are well worth examination. Having 

 had some acquaintance with the detestable Brown Rat, which almost 

 every one admits is a pest of which we might well be rid, the average 

 individual appears to class all the rodents in the same category. 

 This, however, gives quite a wrong impression, as many of these 

 Rats and Mice, and also the Voles, are beautifully clean, well 

 groomed and bright little beasts, feeding, many of them, upon a 

 vegetable diet, and very unlike the Brown Rat in many respects. 

 He, of course, is sometimes a veritable scavenger, but, alas ! he is 

 also the disseminator of disease, the perpetrator of untold damage 

 to grain and other things. Yet, in spite of almost everybody's hand 

 being against it, it still flourishes like the cosmopolitan Sparrow. 

 Probably the Rat and the Sparrow are the best-hated animals in 

 the world from the point of view of the damage they are responsible 

 for, and the general distaste with which they are held. And although 

 war is constantly waged against both bird and mammal, they are 

 still found in very considerable numbers. It is as well to make brief 

 reference to the two, if for no other reason than because the bird 

 has been referred to as the "Avian Rat." The title is somewhat 

 misapplied, but we cannot enter into a controversy regarding it here. 



BROWN RAT.— Although so well known, at any rate by sight 

 and by the damage it does, the Brown Rat is worthy of consideration 

 before we pass on to consider more desirable species. Its original 

 home was China, but it now has an almost world-wide distribution. 

 When it is remembered that it has become a citizen of the world 

 within about the last two hundred years, some idea may be gained 

 of the extraordinary rapidity with which its travels have been con- 

 ducted. The rodent seems to have made its first appearance in 

 England about the middle of the eighteenth century, and not only 



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