454 THE BROWN RAT. 



Rats are very cleanly animals, always washing themselves after every meal, and display- 

 ing the greatest assiduity in making their toilet. They also exhibit considerable delicacy of 

 palate whenever they find a sufficiency of provisions, although they are in no way nice in their 

 diet when pressed by hunger. If, for example, a party of Rats discover an entrance into a 

 butcher's store-house, they are sure to attack the best parts of the meat, utterly disdaining 

 the neck, the shin, or other coarse pieces. 



There is one peculiarity in the structure of the Rat which is worthy of notice. These 

 animals are able not only to ascend a perpendicular tree or wall by the aid of their sharp, 

 hooked claws, but also to descend head foremost with perfect ease. In order to enable them 

 to perform this feat, their hind legs are so made that the feet can be turned outwards, and the 

 claws hitched upon any convenient projections. 



However unpromising a subject the Rat may appear, it has often been tamed, and is a 

 very much more educatable animal than could be supposed. It will obey its master's com- 

 mands with promptitude, and has been known to learn very curious tricks. 



For further information on this subject, the reader is referred to a work, entitled "The 

 Rat," by James Rod well, in which may be found an elaborate account of the animal and its 

 habits, together with much curious and original information. 



There is a well-known proverb that Rats always desert a falling house ; in which aphorism 

 there is really much truth. One curious example thereof I here offer to the reader. 



On page 164 may be seen an account of a cat which had, by some mysterious intuition, 

 migrated from a mill in which she had long lived, and to which she was greatly attached, and 

 which was burned to the ground in a few hours after she had taken her departure. Pussy, it 

 seems, was not the only animal which had been thus forewarned of impending danger, for the 

 Rats also took alarm, and were actually seen upon their journey from their late habitation. 

 They were about one hundred in number, and, starting from the mill some two hours before 

 the fire broke out, proceeded in a compact body towards four stacks belonging to the landlord 

 of the Commercial Inn, and there took up their abode. 



A similar account of Rat prescience has been narrated to me by a spectator of the scene. 



When the English ship Leander was brought into harbor after her voyage, in the year 

 1803, she was so infested with Rats that a wholesale destruction of these four-footed pests was 

 rendered absolutely necessary, not only for the comfort of the crew, but for the very safety of 

 the vessel. The entire contents of the ship were therefore landed on the wharf, a number 

 of chafing-pans filled with lighted brimstone were placed between decks, and the hatches being 

 battened down, the animals were soon stifled by the suffocating vapors. As soon as the 

 preparation for this wholesale destruction commenced, the Rats took alarm, and endeavored 

 to make their way on shore by traversing the " warps," or ropes by which the vessel was 

 made fast to the shore. Sentinels were accordingly placed by the warps, and furnished with 

 sticks, so that as soon as a Rat came running along the ropes, it was speedily checked by a 

 sharp blow, which struck it from its foot-hold, and knocked u dead or dying into the water, 

 where it soon perished. 



It is a curious fact that the Rats were all found lying dead in circles round the braziers, 

 heaped thickly upon each other's bodies. They had instinctively run towards the spots 

 which were comparatively free from vapor, as the heat of the burning coals forced the suffo- 

 cating smoke to rise from the spot where it was generated. 



Some naturalists believe that the Brown Rat as well as the Black Rat originated from 

 Central Asia, especially from India and Persia. Through emigration, caused by deluge and 

 famine, this ugly and detestable creature has in course of time become an inhabitant of every 

 country of the globe. In the beginning of the last century, the Brown Rat immigrated from 

 the Caspian hinds to Europe. In Paris, the cosmopolitan Rat was first noticed in the year 

 1753, a few years after its appearance in England. In Northern America, it was first seen in 

 the year 1765. 



From head to tail the Brown Rat measures sixteen to seventeen inches ; the tail alone 

 measures about seven inches. Albinos are much more rarely found among them than among 

 their kindred, the other Rats and the Mice. 



