RAT. 



585 



tcred hairs between the ring's ; the upper colour is 

 greyish brown, and the under colour whitish grey ; 

 the body is thick and strong ; and the expression of 

 the animal is a mixture of cunning and sulkiness. 

 Common domestic rats, especially when young, are 

 hardly able to master these rats ; and when they 

 muster in numbers, no cat has any chance with them. 

 There are many instances mentioned in which a cat 

 lias been turned into a cellar full of these rats, and 

 been almost instantly killed and eaten by them. 

 Dogs, especially terriers, succeed much better ; as 

 they bite with a snap, and dislocate the spine of the 

 rat at a single pinch. If the dog is not staunch, how- 

 ever, and one rat fastens on his nose, he is not very 

 i'ond of attacking another. 



THE BLACK RAT (M. rattus) is sometimes called 

 the "old English" rat; but the epithet does not 

 appear to be very accurately applied, as the fact of 

 its being a native of Britain or even probably of Eu- 

 rope, is doubtful. The question of its actually being 

 an imported animal is not so completely settled as 

 the same question is with regard to the brown rat. 

 No mention is made of it by Aristotle, or by any 

 other of the naturalists of antiquity. Conrade Gesner 

 of Zurich, who wrote about the middle of the six- 

 teenth century, is the first author by whom it was 

 noticed ; but the mere fact of his being so does not 

 prove that the animal did not exist in Europe before 

 then. Wherever the rats had their original habi- 

 tation, it is probable that the great intercourse by 

 shipping would carry them to all places to which the 

 ships reach. There is hardly such a thing in the 

 whole navies of the world, as a ship with no rat in it ; 

 and, accordingly, the ships of Britain have carried 

 both rats to every part of the world that they have 

 visited. In no place, however, do they appear to 

 disperse themselves very widely in wilds of nature; for 

 though they may be said to be at war with man, they 

 are never far from his habitation. 



In all situations the black rat may be considered 

 as a house-rat, generally quiet during the day and 

 active during night ; but. it is not seen in the fields, 

 neither does it burrow in the ground. Stables are 

 favourite places for it, and it does not hesitate to take 

 up its abode in a cellar ; but it prefers a dry one, 

 and lodges in a hole of the wall rather than the flue, 

 unless the latter is very ciry. 



It is very considerably smaller than the brown 

 species, for it seldom measures so much as seven 

 inches and a half in length ; and though its muzzle is 

 larger, its head altogether is shorter. Its ears are 

 also larger and rounder, and its tail is larger than its 

 body, while that of the other is not so long; the ears 

 and tail are naked ; the eyes rather large ; the fur on 

 the body shairgy ; the whiskers and tufts of stiff hairs 

 over the eyes very long, and the whole expression 

 more rough and fierce than that of the brown rat. It 

 is also more rapid in its motion, and a better climber ; 

 but whether it enter the water so readily may be 

 doubted. The colour is black, with a tinge of grey 

 above, and ash-colour on the under part, often whiter 

 on the breast and throat. There are apt to be oc- 

 casional albinos, however, both among these and 

 among those of the other species ; and it is said that 

 those which are of the natural colour expel the albinos 

 from their society, or, more strictly speaking, with- 

 draw their society from them. 



Advantage is taken of this for the purpose of 

 effecting the expulsion of nits from houses infested 



with them ; but whether it does or does not produce 

 the effect, we pretend not to say. If a rat is 

 caught it is rolled in flour, fine meal, or powdered 

 whiting, until its colour is completely changed ; 

 and then it is sent forth to its companions, who are 

 so suspicious of its appearance, that it fairly 

 chases them out of the house. A singed rat is often 

 turned lame with the same intention ; but whether 

 either mode produces any effect is not fully ascer- 

 tained. Rats are, however, very wary animals, and shy 

 of strange appearances. They also often desert one 

 house suddenly and go to another, without any very 

 obvious cause ; and when this happens, soon after 

 one of these supposed modes of expulsion has been 

 put in practice, the departure is sure to be ascribed 

 to that. One half of the incantations which are re- 

 sorted to have been established by being antecedent 

 in time to other unconnected events, the real causes of 

 which were not known. The Welsh have one for 

 the supposed expulsion of mice. They roast a live 

 mouse to death before the fire, in firm belief that the 

 smell frightens away the others, which is the very 

 antipodes of the effect which it would have, if it had 

 any effect at all. There is an American rat, which 

 has been considered as a species by Rafinesque, Dr. 

 Harlan, and others ; but it differs from the common 

 British one in nothing except in being duller in the 

 colour. 



The rats of foreign countries are pretty numerous ; 

 but very little is known of their manners ; and it is 

 not easy to say which is a rat and which a mouse, 

 that being more a difference of size than anything 

 else. It is generally understood that the mice are 

 less fond of animal matter than the rats. But the 

 chief difference appears to lie in the rats being able 

 to kill larger animals than the mice. The teeth, 

 which afford the best criterion of the disposition of 

 an animal, are exactly of the same structure in the 

 mice as in the rats. The incisors furnish a pair of 

 gnawing instruments, as in all the rodentia, and the 

 cheek teeth have their crowns with tubercles covered 

 with hard enamel. 



THE SUMATRA RAT (M. Sumalrensig), is an inha- 

 bitant of the island after which it is named, and pro- 

 bably most of the neighbouring ones. It is also not 

 uncommon in some parts of continental India, and is 

 met with as far to the north as Bengal. The most 

 remarkable of its external characters is its size, which 

 is about equal to that of a common rabbit. The body 

 and head are, together, nearly fourteen inches long, 

 and the tail is about the same. In its general ap- 

 pearance, and also in its colour, it resembles the 

 brown rat more than the black one ; but still there 

 does not appear to be sufficient reason for supposing 

 that the brown rat is the same species, diminished in 

 size by being brought into a colder climate. The 

 Sumatra rat is dull brown on the upper part, greyish 

 on the under, and black on the legs and feet. The 

 tail is very thinly covered with hair, but not quite so 

 naked as the tails of our rats. It frequents the neigh- 

 bourhood of houses, and burrows under the fences of 

 gardens, or the walls of huts. 



THE CARACO RAT (M. Cameo], is a Siberian spe- 

 cies, inhabiting the easterly parts of that extensive 

 country, where the brown rat does not appear to 

 have yet made its way. It is about the same size as 

 the brown rat, and not very unlike it in form ; but 

 the colours are not the same. But the upper part is 

 a mixture of reddish and dark grey, becoming paler 



