FAMILY MURIDJE; VORACITY OF RATS. 2-55 



224. Both kinds of Rat are extremely voracious, and occa- 

 sionally show great ferocity when attacked. They have been 

 not unfrequently known to attack children and infirm persons 

 when asleep ; and will even " show fight " against more power- 

 ful opponents. Of all the Rodentia, the Brown Rat seems 

 most capable of subsisting upon an exclusively animal diet ; of 

 this, the following is a remarkable example. At Montfau9on, in 

 the neighbourhood of Paris, is a very large establishment for the 

 slaughtering of horses ; and the number of rats which exist in 

 the neighbourhood, and which gain their subsistence from this 

 source alone, is so enormous, that the carcasses of the horses 

 killed in the course of a day, (sometimes amounting to thirty- 

 five in number,) are found the next morning picked bare to the 

 bone. A proposition was made, some time since, for the removal 

 of the establishment to a greater distance ; and one of the chief 

 obstacles urged against it was the fear entertained of the danger- 

 ous consequences that might result to the neighbourhood, from 

 suddenly depriving these voracious animals of their proper suste- 

 nance. The following experiment was made by the head of the 

 establishment, with the view of gaining an idea of the number of 

 Rats in its vicinity. A part of it consists of a yard inclosed 

 by solid walls, at the foot of which are several holes made for 

 the ingress and egress of the Rats. Into this inclosure he put 

 the carcasses of two or three Horses ; and, towards the middle 

 of the night, having first cautiously, and with as little noise 

 as possible, stopped up all the holes, he got together several 

 of his workmen, each having a torch in one hand, and a stick 

 in the other. Having entered the yard, and closed the door 

 behind them, they commenced a general massacre. It was 

 not necessary to take any aim ; for no matter how the blow 

 was directed, it was sure to immolate a Rat ; and those which 

 endeavoured to escape, by climbing up the walls, were quickly 

 knocked down. By a recurrence of this experiment, at inter- 

 vals of a few days, 16,050 Rats were killed in the space of a 

 month. After one night's massacre, the dead amounted to 

 2,650 ; and the result of four hunts was 9,101. Even this 

 can give but an imperfect idea of the number of these vermin ; 



