EATS. 2 1 5 



part of the space allotted to killing horses. The rats 

 in this place have made burrows for themselves, like 

 catacombs ; and so great is their number that they 

 have not found room close by the slaughter-houses. 

 They have gone farther, and the paths to and from 

 their dwellings may be traced across the neighbouring 

 fields. 



The Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park are 

 greatly infested by rats ; but they are too cunning to 

 stay there during tli9 day-time, when they might be 

 more easily caught. So they in the morning cross the 

 canal to the opposite shore, and return in the evening 

 to commit their depredations. 



The Water-rats, or Yoles, eat fishes, frogs, and toad?, 

 besides other food, and do infinite mischief to banks and 

 dams, which they undermine. Their smell is so acute 

 that they will not approach a trap over which a hand 

 has passed ; and they are particularly abundant in all 

 places where herrings are cured, leaving them when the 

 season is over. The thing of all others which attracts 

 rats of all kinds, is a piece of roast beef ; of which they 

 are so fond, that they have been known to kill a com- 

 panion who had eaten some, that they might devour 

 the contents of his stomach. 



Dr. Carpenter was told by a trustworthy eye-witness 

 that she saw a number of rats safely convey some eggs 

 down a flight of stairs, from a store-room to their own 

 dwellings. They stationed themselves on each stair, 

 and each egg, held in the fore-paws, was handed from 

 one rat to another the whole way. The rats who dipped 

 their tails into a jar of treacle, into which they could 

 not dip their paws, and suffered their companions to 

 lick them afterwards, is a well-known story. 



