620 MURIDAZ—EPIMYS 
lead pipes,’ and will even break through cement if they can 
attack it before it has hardened. Sometimes they construct 
clumsy nests, like those of the House Sparrow,’ in thick bushes 
or hedges. 
They have a special propensity for exploring underground 
passages, such as sewers or drains, where no doubt they pick 
up much food ; and, as they swim and dive with almost as much 
facility as purely aquatic mammals, they thus tend to be found 
in exceptional numbers by streams or rivers, with consequent 
damage to embankments and reservoirs. 
Where they are abundant they make beaten paths or 
“runs,” distinguishable from those of rabbits by the con- 
tinuously smoothened surface, since the stride is much shorter 
than that of rabbits, and by the spindle-shaped droppings. 
FIG. 92.—SPoOR OF RAT (Diagram from sketch and measurements made by 
Barrett-Hamilton at Kilmanock.) 
One such pathway leading from burrows to a feeding place 
is said to have measured 500 paces in length.* 
The tracks of rats (Fig. 92) show that when walking the 
hind feet tread partly upon and partly to the outer sides of the 
prints left by the corresponding fore feet, the length of the 
stride being between 8 and ro in. As the pace increases 
the animal breaks into a series of leaps and covers a distance 
of from 13 to 18 in. at each bound. In these leaps the hind 
feet strike the ground together a little in advance, and to the 
outer side, of the prints left by the fore feet; the latter prints 
lie side by side close to the centre of the track. The extreme 
width of the track is about 3 in. 
1 Gnawing of lead from a sash-weight—H. Burroughes, Zoologist, 1852, 3473 3 
leaden pipes (Field, 17th Feb. 1894, 230; 7zé¢d., 1oth March, 353 (illustrated), 
24th April, 474. Specimens of gnawed pipes are in British Museum (N.H.). 
2 Passer domesticus. Whole “ratteries” were reported as existing in hedges 
in New Zealand—see Proc. NV.Z. Institute, 1870, 47 ; and Zoologist, 1887, 189. 
3 Jesse, of. ci¢., 231. 
a Sit 
