178 ANIMALS OF THE 



destroy each other. The same insatiable appetite 

 that impels them to indiscriminate carnage, also 

 incites the strongest to devour the weakest, even 

 of their own kind. The large male rat generally 

 keeps in a hole by itself, and is dreaded by its own 

 species as the most formidable enemy. In this 

 manner the number of these vermin is kept within 

 due bounds ; and when their increase becomes in- 

 jurious to us, it is repressed by their own rapacity. 



But beside their own enmities among each 

 other, all the stronger carnivorous quadrupeds 

 have natural antipathies against them. The dog, 

 though he detests their flesh, yet openly de- 

 clares his alacrity to pursue them, and attacks 

 them with great animosity. Such as are trained 

 up to killing these vermin, dispatch them often 

 with a single squeeze : but those dogs that show 

 any hesitation, are sure to come oft' but indiffe- 

 rently ; for the rat always takes the advantage 

 of a moment's delay, and, instead of waiting for 

 the attack, becomes the aggressor, seizing its pur- 

 suer by the lip, and inflicting a very painful and 

 dangerous wound. From the inflammation, and 

 other angry symptoms that attend this animal's 

 bite, some have been led to think that it was in 

 some measure venomous ; but it is likely that 

 the difficulty of the wound's healing arises mere- 

 ly from its being deep, and lacerated by the 

 teeth, and is rather a consequence of the figure 

 of the instruments that inflict it, than any venom 

 they may be supposed to possess. 



The cat is another formidable enemy of this 

 kind ; and yet the generality of our cats neither 



