ii8 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



to partake of liim. I had once experience of this. I had 

 returned from my early mornin^^ ride, and being a little 

 tired, I lay down, and presently fell half asleep. While 

 thus lying I felt something very soft touch my foot. 

 The touch was repeated, and then followed a sharp 

 prick. I started up, and just in time to see a rat 

 dart through the doorway. 



A rat will sometimes take a fancy to some particular 

 part of the house, and there remain, not permanently, 

 but as long as the fancy takes him. Once, when I was 

 at another station, a rat thus took a fancy to pass his 

 day in my bathing-room. He dug no holes, he did 

 no harm ; he simply passed his time behind one of the 

 doors, which was usually turned against the wall. 

 Every evening about sunset he went away ; some 

 time in the course of the morning he returned. I was 

 so touched at his confidence that I would not have him 

 molested. After a month he ceased to appear. 



But any account of the house rat would be incom- 

 plete without some notice of that horrible variety 

 termed, from the odour that accompanies it, the musk- 

 rat. This rat fortunately does not make its residence 

 in the houses, and indeed it only occasionally enters 

 them, and then as a rule by night. I do not know 

 whether after all it is a true rat. In appearance it 

 more resembles a very small, nearly hairless ferret. It 

 is of a drab colour, and has that half-transparent look 

 noticeable in young mice and unfledged chickens. 

 Its presence is manifested by a squeaking cry, accom- 

 panied by an intolerably sickly odour, something 

 resembling musk. The odour is so penetrating that, 



