of &ntmattfr 



563 



itry it might have originally come, 

 r generally distributed throughout 



ever coun 



it is now generally 



every quarter of the globe. The length of 

 the head and body is about ten inches, and 

 of the tail eight ; the head, back, and sides 

 are of a light brown colour, mixed with 

 tawny and ash ; the breast and belly are a 

 dirty white ; the feet are naked, and of a 

 dull flesh colour, the fore ones being fur- 

 nished with four toes, and a claw instead of 

 the fifth. Whenever it conveniently can, 

 the Rat forms its hole very near the edge of 

 the water, where it chiefly resides during the 

 summer, feeding on small animals, fish, and 

 grain : it also haunts the corn-fields, where 

 it makes burrows, and breeds. When winter 

 approaches, it draws near some farm-house, 

 and burrows in the corn, where it consumes 

 much, but wastes more. It destroys rabbits, 

 poultry, and all sorts of game ; and scarcely 

 any of the feebler animals can escape its 

 rapacity. " Its astonishing fecundity," Mr. 

 Bell observes, "its omnivorous habits, the 

 secresy of its retreats, and the ingenious de- 

 vices to which it has recourse, either to retain 

 its existing place of abode, or to migrate to 

 a more favourable situation, all conduce to 

 keep up its almost overwhelming numbers. 

 It digs with great facility and vigour, making 

 its way with rapidity beneath the floors of 

 our houses, between the stones and bricks of 

 walls, and often excavating the foundations 

 of a dwelling to a dangerous extent. There 

 are many instances or their fatally under- 

 mining the most solid mason-work, or bur- 

 rowing through dams which had for ages 

 served to confine the waters of rivers and 

 canals." 



Mr. Waterton, to whom in the course of 

 this volume we have so often been indebted 

 both for zoological facts and interesting 

 anecdotes, has given his readers some " Notes 

 on the History and Habits of the Brown or 

 Grey Rat," which are not the less genuine 

 for being rather whimsical. " It is known 

 to naturalists," says he, " sometimes by the 

 name of the Norwegian, sometimes by that 

 of the Hanoverian, Rat. Though I am not 

 aware that there are any minutes in the 

 zoological archives of this country which 

 point out to us the precise time at which 

 this insatiate and mischievous little brute 

 first appeared among us ; still, there is a 

 tradition current in this part of the country, 

 that it actually came over in the same ship 

 which conveyed the new dynasty to these 

 shores. [By the way, Mr. W., like a true 

 Jacobite, as he professes liimself to be, can 

 never forgive the new dynasty, or forget the 

 old, but surely neither we nor our readers 

 have any right to quarrel with him for the 

 consistency with which he espousesthe claims 

 of the Stuarts, or the heartiness with which 

 he anathematizes those who upset them ; 

 nay, his indignation at times appears to us 

 so honest and original, as to heighten rather 

 than to detract from his merits as a popular 

 writer.] My father," continues he, "who 

 was of the first order of field naturalists, was 

 always positive on this point ; and he main- 

 tained firmly, that it did accompany the 

 House of Hanover in its emigration from 

 Germany to England. Be this as it may, 



it is certain that the stranger Rat has now 

 punished us severely for more than a century 

 and a quarter. Its rapacity knows no bounds, 

 while its increase is prodigious beyond all 

 belief. But the most singular part of its 

 history is, that it has nearly worried every 

 individual of the original Rat of Great Bri- 

 tain. So scarce have these last-mentioned 

 animals become, that in all my life I have 

 never seen but one single solitary specimen ; 

 it was sent, some few years ago, to Nostell 

 Priory, in a cage, from Bristol ; and I re- 

 ceived an invitation from Mr. Arthur Strick- 

 land, who was on a visit there, to go and see 

 it. Whilst I was looking at the little native 

 prisoner in its cage, I could not help ex- 

 claiming 'Poor injured Briton! hard in- 

 deed has been the fate of thy family ! in 

 another generation at farthest it will pro- 

 bably sink down to the dust for ever. Vain 

 would be an attempt to trace the progress of 

 the stranger Rat through England's wide 

 domain, as the old people now alive can tell 

 nothing of its coming amongst them. No 

 part of the country is free from its baleful 

 presence : the fold and the field, the street 

 and the stable, the ground and the garret, 

 all bear undoubted testimony to its ubiquity 

 and to its forbidding habits. After dining 

 on carrion in the filthiest sink, it will ofteu 

 manage to sup on the choicest dainties of 

 the larder, where, like Celccno of old, ' ves- 

 tigia faeda relinquit.' We may consider it 

 saddled upon us for erer. Hercules himself, 

 could he return to earth, would have his 

 hands full, were he to attempt to drive this 

 harpy back again to Stymphalus. It were 

 loss of time to dwell on its fecundity. Let 

 any body trace its movements in the cellar, 

 the dairy, the outhouse, and the barn, and 

 he will be able to form some notion of the 

 number of hungry mouths which we have 

 to fill. Nine or ten young ones at a time, 

 twice or thrice during the year, are an enor- 

 mous increase, and must naturally recall to 



our minds one of the many plagues which 



rtile land of Egy 

 In the summer months it will take off to 



formerly desolated the fer 



pt. 



the fields, and rear its young amongst the 

 weeds which grow in the hedgerows ; plun- 

 dering, for their support, the birds' nests 

 with a ferocity scarcely conceivable in so 

 small an animal. Man has invented various 

 instruments for its destruction; and what 

 with these, and with poison, added to the 

 occasional assistance which he receives from 

 his auxiliaries, the cat, the dog, the owl, the 

 weasel, the ferret, and the foumart, he is 

 enabled, in some degree, to thin its numbers, 

 and to check its depredations." 



The BLACK RAT. {Mus rattus.) The Old 

 English or Black Rat was, previously to the 

 introduction of the Brown Rat, just described, 

 as numerous and perhaps as extensively dis- 

 tributed as that species has since become ; it 

 is, however, smaller and weaker ; and hence 

 we may account for its almost total extinc- 

 tion by its more powerful enemy. Its length 

 from the nose to the tail is about seven inches, 

 and the tail nearly eight, almost bare, and 

 covered with numerous rings and scales. The 

 nose, which is sharp-pointed, is furnished 



