58 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



Norway rat is too big to follow. Luckily, they 

 eat and destroy each other, or else their fecundity 

 would soon cause them to overrun the whole 

 country. The large male rat generally lives in a 

 hole by itself, and is dreaded by its own species 

 as the most formidable enemy.' 



In an editor's note in Goldsmith's work, it is 

 asserted that the natural antipathy commonly 

 supposed to exist between the black and the 

 brown rats is an error, and that the latter do not 

 necessarily exclude the former from their vicinity, 

 but that the two species often live under the same 

 shelter in contiguous burrows. 



With such conflicting opinions, it would appear 

 somewhat difficult to account for the disappear- 

 ance of the black rat. I think, however, that it 

 may be fairly assumed that the brown rat ousted 

 and devoured his predecessor. These two 

 animals not only differ very considerably in size 

 and colour, but the tail of the black rat is pro- 

 portionately longer and more slender. I do not 

 think, from all I am able to gather regarding it, 

 that the latter is as fearless of taking the water as 

 the brown rat. 



One's antipathies must increase with age. I 

 can hardly credit nowadays that in my boyhood 

 I kept a pet rat, or ever handled snakes with 

 impunity ; but such was the case. The rat was 

 caged in my desk at school, and I have a very 

 distinct recollection of having filled the pockets of 

 my jacket with slow-worms. Nothing would induce 



