CHAPTER SEVEN OWLS &> RATS 



duce broods of six or eight young ones in rapid succession, 

 throughout the greater part of the year. In building a nest 

 for her young, the female carries off every soft substance 

 whichshe canfind;pieces of lace, cloth, and above all, paper, 

 seem to be her favourite lining. 



The natural destroyers in this country of this obnoxious 

 animal seem to be, the hen-harrier, the falcon, the long- 

 eared and the tawny owl, cats, weasels, and stoats; and 

 anie ontnes, boys of every age and grade wage war to the 

 knife _against rats, wherever and whenever they can find 

 them. 



As for rat-catchers — find me an honest one, and I will 

 forfeit my name. I would as soon admit a colony of rats 

 themselves, as one of these gentry to my house, — not but 

 what I have amused myself by learning slight tricks of the 

 trade from one of these representatives of roguery and 

 unblushing effrontery, \>M\.,fas est et ab hoste doceri. Rats 

 swarm about the small towns in this country where the 

 herrings are cured, living amongst the stones of the har- 

 bours and rocks on the shore, and issuing out in great 

 numbers towards nightfall, to feed on the stinking remains 

 of the fish. 



They have been seen migrating from these places at the 

 end of the fishing-season in compact bodies and in immense 

 numbers. They then spread themselves, an invading host, 

 amongst the farm-houses and stack-yards inthe neighbour- 

 hood; repairing again to the coast for the benefit of a fish 

 diet and sea air, when their wonderful instinct tells them 

 that the fishing-season has again commenced. But I really 

 must finish the subject, or my reader will be as tired as I 

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