THE GREAT RAT. 117 



come its easy prey. The same insatiable appetite that 

 impels them to indiscriminate carnage, excites them 

 to the destruction of each other, and by that means 

 prevents the country from being over-run, which must 

 be the case but for their, domestic animosities, as the 

 female brings fo^h three times a-year, and produces 

 from fifteen to thirty at a time. Besides their natural 

 enmities to each other, all carnivorous quadrupeds that 

 are stronger than themselves seem to have a fixed an- 

 tipathy against them. One species of the dog-kind 

 are purposely trained for their destruction ; and the cat 

 appears to be their instinctive foe, although she rejects 

 the eating them as food. The weasel is a still more 

 powerful enemy ; because, from the size of its bod} 7- , 

 it is able to follow the rat into its hole, where dreadful 

 combats frequently ensue, but in which the weasel al- 

 ways comes off victorious. 



The depredations of this animal are as much to be 

 dreaded in the barn as they are in the hen or pigeon- 

 house ; for it not only eats immense quantities of corn, 

 but destroys still more ; and was it not for ferrets, cats, 

 dogs, and poison, this obnoxious creature would be the 

 destruction of half the necessaries of life. 



To the species of the great rat may be added the 

 black one, which is now nearly extirpated by the supe- 

 rior strength of its more powerful rival. The length of 

 the body of this animal is about seven inches, and the 

 colour a deep iron-grey, bordering upon black ; and 

 to this may be subjoined the black water-rat, that is 

 about the same size, which never frequents either barns 

 or houses, but is usually found on the banks of rivers, 

 ditches, and ponds, where it burrows ar><d breeds, and 

 feeds upon fish, frogs, and insects. 



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