MAMMALS 



1 2 feet from the ground. There was no nest. 

 The following localities were given in a letter 

 from the late Dr. Babington to the writer in 

 1885 : * Bull's Wood, Cockfield (dormice, as 

 well as many of their nests containing young, 

 found during September about two years ago), 

 Rougham, Thurston, Beyton, Bradfield St. 

 George and Rush brook. Not at all uncom- 

 mon in the neighbourhood.' The late Dr. 

 Bree, in a letter to Mr. H. Laver of Colches- 

 ter, dated from Long Melford, Suffolk, says : 

 'The dormouse is well known about here 

 . . , Two " sleepers " were quite recently 

 caught by a man while at work in a large 

 wood near Lavenham.' As regards the Ips- 

 wich district, Mr. H. Miller of that town has 

 on more than one occasion during entomo- 

 logical excursions met with dormice in the 

 woods at Belstead and Bentley, and once 

 possessed a specimen which had been found 

 in its nest near the Gold Road in the parish 

 of Stoke, a suburb or hamlet of Ipswich. As 

 recently as the year 1899 he found a pair of 

 dormice and their nest in the Old Hall Wood, 

 Belstead. 



24. Brown Rat. Mus decumanusy Pallas. 



In consequence of the systematic destruc- 

 tion of its natural enemies by gamekeepers 

 this noxious and omnivorous animal has be- 

 come excessively abundant. During the sum- 

 mer great numbers of rats live out in the 

 marshes, burrowing into the sides of ditches 

 and also into the river ' walls,' sometimes to 

 such an extent as to endanger their stability. 

 Undermined and weakened by the numerous 

 excavations of the rats and moles, these em- 

 bankments can no longer resist the weight 

 and pressure of the water, and giving way 

 before the incoming tide occasion extensive 

 floods. The woods too harbour great quan- 

 tities of these animals, which multiply there 

 to an alarming extent, feasting upon the 

 maize and other food intended for the phea- 

 sants. Towards winter they make their way 

 to farm premises, corn stacks and buildings, 

 where they make great havoc among farm 

 produce of various sorts, and especially later 

 on among the early broods of ducklings and 

 chickens, carrying off at times a whole brood 

 in a single night. So numerous have they 

 become that in many districts the ratcatcher 

 with his dogs and ferrets can no longer keep 

 them in check, and the farmers have for 

 years past been forced to resort to the objec- 

 tionable practice of laying down poison, 

 whereby unfortunately not only the rats are 

 destroyed, but also those very creatures which 

 if more numerous would far more efiFectually 

 keep down the numbers of these rodents. It 



is more than probable that many weasels, 

 stoats, owls and other useful ratcatchers find 

 and devour the poisoned rats with fatal results 

 to themselves. Even on the sea coasts colo- 

 nies of rats establish themselves among the 

 faggots sunk in the shingle as a protection to 

 the beach. The sea itself provides them 

 with a constant supply of food, such as shell- 

 fish, dead fish, Crustacea and other marine 

 animals, and occasionally corn and other 

 stores \yashed ashore from wrecks. On some 

 parts of the coast this is supplemented in 

 spring and summer by the eggs and young of 

 terns, ringed plovers and other birds. Some 

 years ago after the wreck of a herring boat 

 the beach between Sizewell and Dunwich 

 was for a long distance strewn with these 

 fish, many' of which were carried by rats a 

 long distance across the marshes to an ancient 

 isolated building in ruins known as the 

 ' Chapel,' ' and were there found stored in 

 their holes under the crumbling walls. Mr. 

 Southwell informs me that on Lowestoft pier 

 he has seen the rats seize and run off with 

 the bait lying by the side of the anglers from 

 the pier. The brown rat varies a good deal 

 in size, and where food is plentiful will attain 

 to dimensions far exceeding those of ordinary 

 individuals. Some big rats have been met 

 with in this county, and curiously enough the 

 two heaviest examples of which I have come 

 across any record were caught in the same 

 parish (Tunstall). One of these, which 

 weighed 21 ounces, was recorded by Mr. 

 J. D. Jackson in the Field of 13 August 

 1 88 1. The other, weighing 23 ounces, was 

 killed on the Dunningworth Hall farm by 

 Mr. R. A. Girling. The occurrence was 

 noted in the same publication under date 

 10 February 1883. These weights however 

 have in several instances been exceeded, 

 notably in the Case of a specimen mentioned 

 in the Field of 9 January 1897, which is 

 stated to have weighed 2| lb. In a species 

 $0 abundant as M. decumanus occasional de- 

 viation from the normal colouring would 

 naturally be expected. Several rather striking 

 varieties have occurred in this county. In 

 the Zoologist for ^889, p. 144, a fawn coloured 

 specimen, white underneath and with pink 

 eyes, is recorded by Mr. E. W. Gunn of 

 Ipswich as having been trapped at Holbrook. 

 In January 1890 a pied rat, brown and 

 white, which had been killed at the Burnt- 

 house farm, Farnham, was seen by the writer. 

 Several others, more or less marked with 



* This ruin is all that now remains of the abbey 

 of Premonstratensian canons, founded in 1182. 

 See Hist, of Suffolk, Rev. J. J. Raven, D.D., p. 87. 



227 



