RAT. 



53' 



it ought to have been fully established many yean 

 ago. 



It might be as well, however, to "call " the Rev 

 Mr. Ferryman ; as there are one or two questions to 

 which his answers would be very desirable. How 

 many black rats make a "great number," for the breed 

 is getting rather scarce ? How near to him did they 

 pass? and at what rate were they moving? What 

 kind of pace had they? did they walk, or trot, or 

 leap, or amble, or gallop? How near must one be to 

 a rat when in motion, in order to ascertain whether 

 the said rat is or is not blind, if its eyes happen to be 

 shut at the time? Satisfactory answers to all these 

 questions are necessary, in order to establish any 

 thing like an hypothesis in the teeth of the general 

 law of nature, as it happens to be here ; and much 

 more are they necessary for the establishment of the 

 fact. .We believe* that rats never migrate till they 

 are starved out at those places which they quit, and 

 nearly at the extreme pinch of hunger, which they 

 can endure a long time, voracious as they are. In 

 their hunger they snap at all sorts of substances, 

 especially if an animal or animal matter has touched 

 them ; and although they prefer animal food to vege- 

 table, and vegetable food in proportion as it is pulpy 

 and savoury, yet, as is the case with most of the ro- 

 dentia, they will gnaw straws and twiffs in the extre- 

 mity of their hunger. We have fifty times seen straw- 

 cut to chaff by the teeth of these same black rats ; 

 and therein we think may be found a complete expla- 

 nation of all the tenderness and care towards the 

 disabled and aged, without any infraction of the 

 general law of animals. One rat gets hold of a 

 straw or bit of stick, not with his chisel-shaped incisors, 

 which would soon divide it, but with his tnberculated 

 cheek-teeth ; another seizes the end of it in the same 

 manner, in order to pull it from him ; and onward 

 they move in their contest. 



In all the species, the tendency to production is 

 very great ; and, where they have food and shelter, 

 and ^moderate warmth, it is not confined to any one 

 season. As the rats, that is, the black rat and the 

 brown rat of this country, never live but in situations 

 where they are less exposed to the weather than 

 some of the mice, there is little or no pause in their 

 activity in the whole course of the year, and they 

 breed as readily in winter as in summer. It is in fact 

 their love of a uniform and father high temperature 

 which brings them in such numbers to the subways 

 and sewers in cities. In these the temperature, taken 

 on the whole, is never nearly so low as that of freez- 

 ing, and it is generally much higher, often indeed it 

 is absolutely warm, when the free air above is cold. 

 The number of young in a litter is often considerable, 

 exceeding that of the teats of the female, and in some 

 cases double the number of these. The teats are six 

 in number, and the young are often twelve. Many 

 of the other rodeutia are very prolific animals, but 

 the rats are to be considered as the most prolific of 

 the whole, especially in situations in which their 

 breeding is not suspended seasonally. 



The general characters which distinguish the genus 

 from the other rodeutia may be stated thus : the teeth 

 consist of two incisors, no canines, and three cheek teeth 

 in each side of each jaw. All these teeth have roots 

 independently of the coronal part which stands up 

 above the surface of the jaws ; the crowns of the 

 cheek teeth are tuberculated, and thus bruising teeth 

 rather than grinding ones ; and the incisors are firm, 



strong, hard in their enamel, sharp in their edges, and 

 well adapted for gnawing. There are few animals 

 which can gnaw their way through a board more ex- 

 peditiously than a rat ; and even the most diminutive 

 of the mice can eat their way, by runs and galleries 

 in every direction, through a rick of corn, which is 

 very acceptable quarters, and prevents them from 

 feeling any winter when the fields are bare. The 

 ears of the genus are generally large, of an ovate or 

 rounded form, and well developed ; and it is under- 

 stood that the sense of hearing in all is very acute. 

 Their habit requires that it should be so, as they are 

 chiefly nocturnal in their feeding, and not often seen 

 abroad during the day, though the cries of the field 

 ones are often heard from under cover, if the weather 

 is dry and sultry. The ears are usually nearly naked 

 of fur; and none of the genus have cheek-pouches to 

 the sides of the mouth. The feet are plantigrade, 

 and in most, instances almost naked, or covered with 

 very short fur thinly set ; the fore feet have only four 

 toes fully developed, the one answering to the thumb 

 being merely a rudimental tubercle, though it is fur- 

 nished with a little flat nail ; the nails on the other 

 four toes are well adapted for digging, and the arti- 

 culations of the shoulders are fortified with clavicles 

 for this purpose, so that the animals can bring the 

 fore feet to the mouth in feeding ; the hind feet have 

 all the four toes fully developed ; the tail varies in 

 length, but it is generally long, naked, except a few 

 short hairs, and it is covered between them with a 

 sort of scales, which are not true scales however, but 

 merely little hardened plates of the epidermis, which 

 easily fall off and are replaced by others. The prin- 

 cipal fur is very soft, but it is generally interspersed 

 with larger and thicker hairs which are shining in 

 their lustre. In place of these last, the spiny rats 

 (ScMmys) have their spines, though these are some- 

 times concealed in the fur. When they live in con- 

 stant warmth and shelter, they have the produced 

 hairs less abundant than when they are more exposed 

 to the weather. Many of them take the water readily. 

 and preserve their fur dry ; but there are some which 

 are easily wetted. They are all, however, very fond 

 of drinking, which operation they perform by lapping 

 with the tongue. 



Destructive as the genus Muz are in themselves to 

 all those matters on which they feed, and fast as they 

 multiply, where the abounding of their means of sub- 

 sistence, and especially the continuance of it all the 

 year round, are favourable to their multiplication, they 

 Slave many enemies to thin their numbers. We have 

 vidence of the avidity with which they are sought 

 jy the smaller of the feline tribe, in the domestic cat, 

 which is always on the qui vivc whenever there is a 

 mouse stirring, and watches and steals upon them 

 with such consummate art that she captures them 

 readily under circumstances where the capture ap- 

 icars to us to be very difficult. The owls (see the 

 article OWL in this work) are even more destructive 

 of then'., especially the field and forest ones. The 

 ;ite also makes many a meal of mice, and in this way 

 makes some slight compensation to the farmer tor 

 he few chickens which it contrives to steal from the 

 outskirts of the brood, when the brood-hen is off her 

 guard. The weasel tribe are, however, among the 

 ittest of their foes, as the little and slender bodies of 

 .hese animals enable them to twine into places whore 

 no other of the same power can enter. In wild 

 nature indeed, the weasel tribe, in one or other of 

 I. L 9 



