34 NOTES TO THE 



&c. The wild boar is swift on foot, and is a splendid leaper and 

 swimmer, and never cuts his throat in the water. Indeed, that 

 is as much a vulgar error as that birds sleep with their heads 

 under their wing, or that cats suck children's breath. It is 

 generally imagined that pigs are eating roots, when a slovenly 

 farmer, having neglected to have rings put in their snouts, they 

 are seen ploughing up the grass. I have watched them often,"and 

 I have found that they are then feeding upon the earthworm, 

 and I believe that worms constitute a great portion of the food 

 of the pig in its wild state. In Germany they are conlined in 

 parks along with deer, and in severe weather food is given them. 

 " I cannot personally say how long the domestic pig lives. 

 Cuvier and, I think, others say that it has been known to 

 reach twenty years. My tame wild boar sow was fourteen years 

 old, May, 1875, and died a few months afterwards. My domestic 

 pig has had as many as twenty- one pigs at a litter, and fourteen 

 is not uncommon." 



RATS AND MICE, p. 32. In England we have three distinct 

 varieties of rat the common house or barn rat (originally the 

 Norway rat), the old black English rat, now almost extinct, and 

 the water rat or water-vole. The Norwegian rat is said to have 

 been imported in the holds of ships, and to have successfully 

 invaded the territory of his black brother and completely dispos- 

 sessed him. The common house rat has of late years increased 

 enormously, owing, it is said, to the use of the steam threshing- 

 machine, which iu three days threshes out the whole stack 

 yard of the farmer, the rats migrating bodily to quieter 

 quarters, unmolested and unnoticed in the general hurry 

 whereas in former days when each stack was dealt with in 

 detail, and threshed out with the nail, the farmers' men and 

 dogs effected an easy haul of the marauders. In the spring 

 and summer, the house rat uses the river bank and water- 

 courses in common with the water vole, and as he swims 

 and dives well, though he cannot continue long under water 

 he gives rise to much confusion and many errors concern- 

 ing the two species. Apart from many other distinguishing 

 marks, the coat or fur of the house rat is entirely different 

 from that of the water rat the fur of the water rat being 

 velvety and long. The water rat, save where he bores through 

 water-dams and interferes with drainage, is harmless, living 

 principally on herbage and roots. In Ireland this variety is 

 said to be unknown, and the only rat ever seen in that country 

 is the common house-rat, which, however, by its numbers quite 

 makes up for the absence of the other. 



