RAT. 



their species, are always numerous in proportion to 

 the food and consequently the numbers of the marine 

 rodentia. About a farm-yard, one weasel or ferret 

 can do the work of a dozen cats in the destruction of 

 mice ; and in as far as vegetables are concerned, 

 whether in the store or in the growing state, the mice 

 are really the grand pests of the genus. 



All the natural enemies of the genus, whether 

 mammalia or birds, are so formed and so furnished in 

 the covering of their bodies that they come upon 

 them in the most stealthy manner. Not a foot-fall 

 of the cat or the weasel can be heard by the keenest 

 ear ; the owl, if it can keep its tongue still, and it 

 " sings out" to rouse and so find the prey, and not to 

 rush upon it after it is found, gets through the air 

 more silently than one current of the air can do when 

 it sets strongly against a counter-current ; and this 

 is the reason why the owl is so very successful a 

 mouser. The weasel family are, however, the most 

 scientific destroyers of the whole. The cat catches 

 with the claws, and thus takes hold of any part that 

 it can catch, and it very often sports with the victim 

 before inflicting a wound which is to be speedily 

 mortal. ^The owl too is a clutcher, whether the 

 original clutch is made by the beak or the talons. 

 The weasels, on the other hand, divide the vessels of 

 the neck by the first and only bite which is necessary 

 for the effecting of their purpose ; and this not only 

 with a small animal like a mouse or rat, but with one 

 as large as a hare. In consequence of this " art of 

 killing," possessed by the weasels, they have no equals 

 in those cases where the war has to be carried on 

 against large colonies of mice. One of the chief of 

 them is the taking down of an old rick of corn, either 

 where the base of the rick has not been provided 

 with pillars with caps to prevent the invasion of 

 mice, or where mice have been carried to it in the 

 corn from the field. If this rick is allowed to stand 

 for a few years, the colony produced by a single 

 pair, or one pregnant female carried to it in this way, 

 may be vastly more numerous than any multiplication 

 of ordinary mammalia, under ordinary circumstances, 

 would lead one to suppose. A farmer, by having 

 had mice carried in this way to a rick, the supporting 

 pillars of which are so formed that no mouse can 

 enter it afterwards, and who is not aware of the pest 

 that has been carried there along with the corn, may 

 have full confidence that that rick, carefully thatched 

 above from the weather, is safe as a store against the 

 time of need ; but lo, and behold! when he comes to 

 have it cast down, in order to be put under the flail 

 or through the thrashing machine, he finds chaff and 

 cut straw, and hundreds of full-grown mice, and 

 bushels of blind and furless young ones, while the 

 value of his rick is reduced thirty or, in many cases, 

 fifty per cent. On such occasions, it is desirable to 

 have all the cats and curs in requisition, in order to 

 prevent the plague which the rick has fostered from 

 spreading to the other parts of the farm-yard and to 

 the buildings. The cats proceed by ajntiuscade, and 

 therefore they are not so efficient against the flying 

 multitude ; but a good terrier, especially one of the 

 wiry-haired Scotch curs, may be of yeoman service, 

 and will snap here and snap there, finishing his hun- 

 dreds, apparently quite pleased with the glory of the 

 triumph, and giving himself no trouble about the spolia 

 opima, which is the grand object of ambition with the 

 cat. The ferret or the weasel, especially if it has 

 been kindly treated and trained (fur if an animal has 



activity and nous in wild nature, these can always be 

 turned to account by skilful management on the part 

 of man), is the chosen one for this k*nd of slaughter. 

 It goes where no dog can go, it does its work effec- 

 tually and quietly, and it is long in being tired. 

 Indeed it appears to be the habit of these singularly 

 active, lithe, scientific in the art of killing, and we 

 may add pretty animals, that the glory of the work 

 appears to be their chief pleasure ; and one weasel 

 or ferret will put the seal of death upon a hundred 

 mice without giving itself the least trouble about 

 eating one out of the number. 



Interesting as the murine rodentia are, however, 

 we must close our general remarks upon them, arid 

 say something about the different species. In doiii" 

 this, we shall not attempt to enumerate the whole, 

 neither shall we follow any of the attempts that have 

 been made to arrange them into sections or subgenera, 

 because, in many of the species, there is not informa- 

 tion sufficient for such a purpose, and even if there 

 were it is very doubtful if it would be of much use to 

 the general student. The technical distributions of 

 animals are, in a great measure, made by the museum 

 naturalists, who are more conversant with skins than 

 with living animals ; they are not unfrequently made 

 by them of themselves and for themselves, and there- 

 fore they are of comparatively little use in a popular 

 point of view. This being the case, we shall take 

 the species which we mention at random, and under 

 their common names. 



THE BROWN RAT (Mus dccumanus). This species, 

 though now so very numerous in those localities 

 which are favourable to its habits, some of which we 

 have mentioned, is but a recent importation into this 

 country, or even into Europe, or the north of Asia. 

 Considered as a British animal, it is therefore not a 

 native ; but, as it was imported without any desire to 

 have it, and rather with the opposite desire, it of 

 course takes its station among our wild mammalia. 

 This species is sometimes called the Norway rat, and 

 it may have been introduced into Britain from Nor- 

 way, yet it is no more a native of that country than 

 it is a native of the cross of St. Paul's, or the throne 

 of our sovereign lord the king, in the audience cham- 

 ber, or the house of lords. The animal itself is of 

 course silent on the subject of its migrations ; and, as 

 some parts of its progress are quite unknown, the 

 whole falls under that ctmmon law of all concatena- 

 tions, philosophic, historical, or otherwise, that no 

 one of them, taken as a whole, is stronger than its 

 weakest part. Pennant says that it originally came 

 from the East Indies ; but Pennant is no authority 

 beyond the scope of his own organs of sight, and per- 

 haps not quite so far ; and therefore this part of tlie 

 subject must be set aside. Professor Pallas is a better 

 authority, though, from the materials out of which.he 

 had to furnish qualifications for entering the field of 

 observation for himself, even he is not implicitly to 

 be relied on. His account is that they came to 

 Astrachan in the year 1727; that they came from 

 the western desert, and not from the meridian of 

 India ; and the accounts add that they have not yet 

 penetrated far into the steppes, or wide arid plains of 

 Siberia. It is not very likely that they should, for 

 their habits with us are any thing but those of ani- 

 mals likely to make plains which are dry for a con- 

 siderable part of the summer, and covered with snow 

 for the greater part of the winter, the places of their 

 stbode. According to the Professor, tlu-y came to 



