QUADRUPEDS. 55 



events, effectually clear a stream of them in a very short time, 

 and the chase will afford exciting amusement of a summer evening 

 I shall conclude the subject of the destruction of rats with an 

 amusing account of a novel, but apparently, under the circum- 

 stances, a most effective mode of accomplishing this object. 



BARRACK FOR RATS. 



An extensive bacon-merchant in Limerick, who kills between 

 forty and fifty thousand pigs in a season, has adopted the following 

 successful method to destroy the rats which abound on his pre- 

 mises, where the abundance of food will always occasion a vast col- 

 lection of these troublesome and destructive animals. He has 

 erected a quadrangular stone building, eleven feet long, and seven 

 feet wide, with a wall three feet high, having flags laid flat upon 

 the top, but projecting a little over the inside of the wall. All 

 round the wall inside, at the base, are numerous holes, like pigeon 

 holes, which do not go quite through, except a few to allow a free 

 passage to the little animals. Outside of the barrack is a plentiful 

 supply of water and food, such as bones and useless offal. The 

 interior of the walls is occupied by boards, lumber, and straw 

 just such concealment as these animals are known to prefer, and 

 the whole is covered by a moveable wooden roof. When it is 

 judged proper to destroy them, the passages are stopped at the 

 outside, the roof is lifted off, and the boards are taken out. The 

 frightened animals run up the wall, but their escape is impossible, 

 for they strike against tl>e projecting flags and fall back again. 

 They then run into the small holes below, but these are only just 

 large enough to admit their bodies, whilst the tails remain sticking 

 out, a secure prize to the men who go in over the wall ; and by 

 this unlucky appendage they suddei ly drag them out, and fling 

 them to a posse of anxious dogs outside of the fortress, or into a 

 barrel of water, where they are soon destroyed. As there are not 

 holes enough in the wall inside, the noise and uproar soon frighten 

 another division of rats into the vacated openings, and these being 

 treated in the same unceremonious manner, the whole garrison is 

 thus speedily destroyed. As many as seven or eight hundred 

 have been killed in one clearing. Rats being fond of straw, they 

 also become very numerous on the lofts where this article is kept, 

 to be used for singing bacon, and they cut it into short pieces with 

 their teeth, which renders it useless for this purpose. The pro* 



