Ground Vermin-^ Habits of Rats. 399 



to intrude with bloodthirsty intent, and may meet the 

 female, who, fully aware of his design, waits for no 

 apologies, but flies at him with a fierceness sufficient to 

 induce his precipitate flight. The broods of one female 

 remain for the most part in company until the females 

 begin to breed, after which the circle breaks up and each 

 pursues its individual course. 



Rats live in colonies, in much the same way as rabbits, but 

 owing to the nature of their habits, not to the same extent. 

 As soon as it is dusk and the places of their nightly mischief 

 are quiet, they issue from the retreats where they may have 

 remained sleeping during the day, some seeking materials for 

 nests, others improving the strategical value of their runs, 

 but the greater number bent on satisfying their inordinate 

 appetite. Each colony (we speak now of barn and house 

 rats) spends the time of repose in close companionship, or 

 sometimes snugly huddled up together in a batch, sepa- 

 rating one from another only when their appetites move them 

 so to do, or to attain certain things which are only within 

 reach in the daytime. Rats are by no means selfish about any 

 provender which they may individually obtain, but on the 

 contrary, in the event of a certain member of a family 

 discovering a delicacy, it either fetches its friends and rela- 

 tives to the spot or conveys the tempting morsel to the 

 general meeting place during the day. Hence rats will often 

 put themselves to extreme trouble to transport such unwieldy 

 articles as eggs. The manner of conveying them is very 

 interesting, but is so well known as scarcely to need descrip- 

 tion. Rats frequenting hedgerows and banks, of course, 

 cannot adopt this mode of living, and repair to the burrows 



