262 AN EAST COAST NATURALIST 



bespeaking the occasional trailing of a tail. Quite 

 half a mile away from the breakwater I have seen 

 these unmistakable tell-tale imprints along the tide- 

 mark, and it is quite easy, after a little practice, to 

 form a pretty correct idea of the hour " longtail " 

 was out on his travels by noting their distance from 

 the last high-water mark. 



A PLAGUE OF BLACK RATS 



Although the existence of the Black Rat (^Mus 

 rattus) in Yarmouth was known to me in my earliest 

 years, and an odd carcass was now and again thrown 

 out from a malthouse or a sail-loft, to be kicked 

 about the streets, it was not until 1895 that I 

 began seriously to make inquiries with regard to its 

 numbers and behaviour in the older parts of the 

 town, where it seemed to be more at home than in 

 the newer portions. I found out that its presence in 

 the malthouses during the drying season was by no 

 means unknown, or seldom noticed, whilst at other 

 times, when lack of food in these places drove it into 

 warehouses and sail-lofts, it became quite a nuisance, 

 devouring any lumps of Russian tallow left about by 

 the sail-sewers, and committing havoc amongst the 



