BLACK RAT. 239 



85 I Iiave not seen a specimen obtained there within 

 these fifteen years ; but in London it is said by Mr 

 Bell to exist in considerable numbers, " especially 

 in the cellars and stables, in many of which it is 

 more common than the other." Whether the de- 

 struction of this animal has been effected by the 

 larger and more ferocious Brown Rat, or, like that 

 of many tribes of the human species, has resulted 

 from the diminution of food, caused by the over- 

 whelming increase of an unfriendly race, it is im- 

 possible to determine. It has indeed been alleged 

 by many naturalists that the Brown Rat has actually 

 worried to death its less powerful relative; arid, 

 although this is mere conjecture, it is by no means 

 improbable, if we consider the character of that 

 audacious animal, which has been known, when 

 hard pressed, to attack even one of the lords of 

 creation, when unusually hungry to gnaw the flesh 

 of his defenceless offspring, and, when famished, to 

 kill and devour its own kind. 



The old English or Black Rat," as it has been 

 called, although as much French or Irish as English, 

 is an active, lively, most cleanly, and, I think, 

 beautiful, little quadruped. Its elongated muzzle, 

 however, and its bare, rope-like, scaly tail, detract 

 from its beauty. It is naturally phytophagous, feed- 

 ing chiefly on herbs and seeds, but in consequence 

 of its preferring the vicinity of man, it finds it 

 necessary to adopt an extended regimen, and con- 

 vert into chyle whatever esculents come in its way, 

 so that it is scarcely less omnivorous than its un- 



