RAT KIND. 175 



force can be exerted against their unresisting 

 timidity ;, no arts can dimmish their amazing pro- 

 pagation ; millions may be at once destroyed, and 

 yet the breach be repaired in the space of a very 

 few weeks ; and in proportion as nature has 

 denied them force, it has supplied the defect by 

 their fecundity. 



THE GREAT RAT. 



THE animal best known at present, and in 

 every respect the most mischievous, is the Great 

 Rat ; which, though but a new comer into this 

 country, has taken too secure a possession to be 

 ever removed. This hateful and rapacious crea- 

 ture, though sometimes called the Rat of Norway, 

 is utterly unknown in all the northern countries, 

 and, by the best accounts I can learn, comes 

 originally from the Levant. Its first arrival, as 

 I am assured, was upon the coasts of Ireland, in 

 those ships that traded in provisions to Gibraltar ; 

 and perhaps we owe to a single pair of these ani- 

 mals, the numerous progeny that now infests the 

 whole extent of the British empire. 



This animal, which is called by M. Buffon the 

 Surmalot, is in length about nine inches ; its eyes 

 are large and black ; the colour of the head, and 

 the whole upper part of the body, is of a light 

 brown, mixed with a tawny and ash colour. The 

 end of the nose, the throat, and belly, are of a 

 dirty white, inclining to grey ; the feet and legs 

 are almost bare, and of a dirty pale flesh colour ; 



