RAT. 



539 



tne mice which harbour and breed in such places. 

 In the early period of its history as a British animal, 

 and wlien it was accounted rare, the harvest-mouse 

 attracted a very considerable share of attention; but, 

 since it was found not to be very rare, though it is ra- 

 ther local, the novelty has worn off, and it has taken 

 its rank among ordinary mice that is, as being withal 

 a pretty and lively animal, but under particular cir- 

 cumstances a very amusing little pest. 



As there are three distinct species of mice with tuber- 

 ciliated teeth in Britain, and only two of rats, it might be 

 inferred, priori, that the species of such mice, taken 

 altogether, are more numerous than those of rats. 

 This is the case ; and though mice do not muster in 

 such numbers at particular points as some of the rats 

 do, vet they are distributed into more places, and are 

 altogether more numerous. They are found in very 

 many parts of both continents ; but little is known of 

 their manners. The accounts which are given of 

 them would, however, lead us to believe that they are 

 field or forest mice ; and that there is no mouse 

 really a household one, and accompanying man in all 

 his movements, except the common mouse with which 

 every one is so well acquainted. We shall merely 

 name one or two of them, without vouching for the 

 perfect accuracy of the nomenclature. 



THE SUBTILE MOUSE (A/, subtilis) is a native of the 

 central and northern parts of Asia, and there appear 

 to be some varieties of it differing from each other 

 in some of their habits. They are small animals, not 

 exceeding three inches in length in the body, but the 

 tail is rather more than that ; the colour is yellowish 

 ash, with a black dorsal line ; the ears are in folds ; 

 one variety of this 1ms the fore-paws very large, and 

 is dexterous in climbing trees ; their structure has 

 not, however, been examined with the care necessarv 

 to fix their place ; and it is probable that some of 

 them belong to the section which have no tubercles 

 on the crowns of the cheek-teeth, and are in conse- 

 quence much more vegetable in their feeding than 

 the true mice which have the teeth tuberculated in 

 the manner of these that have been already noticed. 

 In the American continent, especially in South Ame- 

 rica, there are a considerable number, some of which 

 are called rats aud others mice, but nothing interest- 

 ing to ordinary readers is known of them, and, there- 

 fore, we shall not farther extend the list. 



We shall now very shortly advert to the species 

 which have not the cheek tuberculated, which are in 

 consequence chiefly vegetable in their feeding ; and 

 our notice* s-hall be chiefly confined to the British 

 species which have, of course, the greatest attraction 

 for the readers of the " British Cyclopaedia.'' We 

 gave a very slight notice of them in the article 

 AKVICOLA, from that we referred to the French name 

 CAMPAGNOL, as 'we had then intended to go fully 

 into the details of all the species of the mammalia. 

 But finding that, with any thing like justice to the 

 other parts of nature, that would have swelled the 

 size and price of the work to far greater extent than 

 was consistent with its object, and that a very con- 

 *iderable portion of these details, being purely of a 

 technical nature, could have no interest whatever for 

 general readers, we have not only telt it necessary, but 

 judged it for the best, to omit several of the articles 

 referred to in the early numbers, and, among the rest, 

 the intended article CAMPAGNOL, and place the sub- 

 stance of what relates to the British species here. 



The larger species .of these animals have got the 



common name of rats, and the smaller ones of mice ; 

 and among scientific naturalists they have occasioned 

 no small degree of perplexity. Linnaeus classed them 

 with the beavers. They agree with the beavers in 

 some particulars, but differ so much in others, that 

 they cannot be classed with the typical or building 

 beaver ; because they not only want the peculiarly 

 formed tail of that animal, and have none of its 

 habits as a builder, but have the teeth different the 

 beaver having four cheek-teeth in each side of each 

 jaw, and the animals in question only three, in the 

 same number as the rats. Their cheek-teeth have 

 the crowns flat, or without tubercles, and only rough- 

 ened by zig-zag lines which cross them. This indi- 

 cates that the food is chiefly vegetable ; but the 

 smaller number of teeth shows that it is of a 

 less stubborn nature than the bark and twigs upon 

 which beavers subsist during the winter. The teeth 

 are like those of the musk beaver of Canada (Fiber); 

 but the feet are different. That animal has no webs 

 to the hind feet, as the true beaver has ; but the edges 

 of the toes are beset with stiff bristly hairs which 

 appear to answer the same purpose ; but in the ani- 

 mals under notice, even the aquatic ones, which are 

 very expert swimmers and divers, there is neither 

 web nor margin to the toes. It does not, therefore, 

 appear that any real advantage can be derived from 

 the grouping of these animals with any other genus ; 

 but that they assimilate so equally to different ones, 

 that the best way of dealing with them is to take 

 them singly by themselves. They are all burrowing 

 animals, which collect in their burrows a store of pro- 

 visions for their winter support; and therefore we may 

 conclude that they do not become dormant, unless 

 where the winter is excessively cold. 



There are three British species, one inhabiting the 

 banks of streams aud small rivers, another found in 

 the sides of ditches and under hedges, and the third 

 more generally distributed over the breadth of the 

 fields. The first of these, and by far the largest of 

 the British species, is, 



THE WATER RAT, or rather WATER VOLE (A. 

 aijiiatica). This is a very common and well known 

 species, being found by the banks of every stream 

 and rivulet, where these banks are not rock, or sand, 

 or gravel, or some other substance which will not 

 admit of a human being under. The opening to this 

 burrow is never very far above the level of the water, 

 or, if that level is subject to variations from floods, 

 there are generally two openings, one higher and the 

 other lower, but not the one immediately over the 

 other. The lawn, or bit of grass in front of these 

 openings, is generally kept cut very close and neat ; 

 but what may be the object it is not easy to say. 

 The higher opening answers another purpose besides 

 that of enabling the animal to adapt itself to the 

 height of the water. It is the passage from which 

 the landward part of the pasture is reached. As the 

 water-vole always takes to the water when alarmed, 

 one would be apt to suppose that it found the whole 

 of its food in the water. But this is not the case. It 

 is a vegetable feeder, and the fleshy and bulbous roots 

 of plants form the chief part of its food. Of these it 

 obtains a good many in the water no doubt, but they 

 are still more numerous on the soft and moist mea- 

 dows and borders, especially where, as there 

 often is, a stagnation of water behind the immediate 

 bank of the stream. These little accumulations of 

 stagnant water have generally many plants about 



