396 Practical Game Preserving. 



ence, however, are found in grain, and in nearly all the 

 products in which grain is employed. Meat, also, of every 

 kind, while vegetables of many sorts, together with every 

 conceivable substance, from old leather to green peas, 

 form at some time or another food for the Mus decumanus. 

 Not content with such a scope for the acquirement of 

 provender, it is also of a cannibalistic turn when one 

 or more of its kind are injured or in difficulties. In the 

 event of one being wounded, whether by combat or other- 

 wise, the rest eagerly fall upon it, and, if the spot be 

 not favourable, convey it to a more convenient place, 

 where they tear it in pieces, and, having consumed it, 

 perhaps treat its conqueror in the same manner. Again, 

 if one of their number should get caught in a gin or 

 trap, 'instead of taking steps to effect its release, they will 

 sometimes fly at the unhappy animal, and, tearing it limb 

 from limb, dispute upon the remains. Strangely enough, 

 the male rats far outnumber the female, being numerically 

 nearly double, and to this fortunate circumstance we owe 

 the fact that rats are not more numerous than they are. 



The rats which inhabit the network of sewers in the 

 metropolis and other large towns are of the same species 

 as those which frequent barns, houses, and corn ricks, 

 and at times, during the year, hedgerows and the borders 

 of ditches and rivers, although the former are of considerably 

 larger size, altogether fiercer, and exceed what we call the 

 "barn" rat in voracity and boldness. The rats frequenting 

 sewers, it is to be remembered, usually remain in their 

 unsavoury localities all their lives, and this goes to account 

 for their greater ferocity. The rats, on the other hand, 



