158 THE MARMOT. 



greatest strength. No art can counteract its various powers of 

 annoyance, and force is ineffectually opposed to an adversary 

 possessing such a variety of means to baffle its efforts. 



The rat is a bold and fierce animal ; its bite is keen, and the 

 wound it inflicts painful and difficult to heal. Its rapacity has no 

 bounds ; for it preys on every creature it is able to subdue, and 

 does incalculable mischief among grain and fruits. It refuses 

 scarcely any article of food, and few places are secure from its 

 depredations. 



A numerous host of enemies combine for the destruction of 

 this noxious quadruped. Several kinds of dogs pursue rats with 

 eagerness, and kill them, although none will eat their flesh. The 

 cat is also one of their formidable adversaries ; but the weasel is 

 their most determined enemy, and hunts them with unceasing 

 avidity. The ferret is also employed in the same business : and 

 mankind have employed the various means of traps and poison, 

 in order to destroy these troifblesome intruders ; but no method 

 hitherto discovered has been able to effect their extirpation. The 

 sagacity of these animals in avoiding the traps and snares laid 

 for them, is astonishing and well known ; and their various means 

 of eluding danger, together with their amazing fecundity, pro- 

 ducing from twelve to eighteen young at one time, render in- 

 effectual the united efforts of such a multitude of enemies as 

 combine for their destruction. Their numbers would indeed 

 increase beyond all power of restraint, but that an insatiable 

 voraciousness impels them to devour one another, and the weaker 

 invariably fall a prey to the stronger. 



. M. St. Pierre informs us, that in the Isle of France, rats are 

 so extremely numerous, that at sun-set they may be seen running 

 about in all directions, and frequently destroy a whole crop of 

 corn in a single night. In some of the houses they swarm so 

 prodigiously, that thirty thousand have been killed in a year ; 

 they have also subterraneous magazines of corn and fruit, and 

 even climb the trees to devour the young birds. 



Kaempfer asserts, that the Japanese have a method of taming 

 these rats, and of teaching them a variety of entertaining tricks, 

 which are occasionally exhibited for the amusement of the 

 populace. 



It is a singular circumstance in the history of these animals, 

 that the skins of such as have been found devoured in their holes, 

 have been curiously turned inside-out, every part, even to the 

 ends of the toes, being completely inverted. 



THE MARMOT 



Has been frequently classed by some naturalists with the rat 

 kind, while others refer it to that of the hare ; and in size it ap- 



