MICE AND RATS. 197 



against the weaker Black Rat, with the calamitous results to 

 the latter already described. 



There is another question connected with the migrations of 

 the Brown Rat which has likewise given rise to a considerable 

 amount of controversy among naturalists, namely, as to the 

 country which has the doubtful honour of being the original 

 birthplace of this unmitigated pest. India was suggested by 

 Pennant as being probably the parent-country, but Mr. Blanford 

 states that the Brown Rat was certainly not indigenous there, 

 and that Chinese Mongolia may with more likelihood be re- 

 garded as its centre of dispersion. 



It may be added that the terms "Norway," and "Hanoverian" 

 Rat, which used frequently to be applied to the present species, 

 are pure misnomers. 



Habits. Not only is the Brown Rat a larger and more power- 

 ful animal than its black cousin, but it is even more prolific, 

 breeding several times in the course of a season, and com- 

 monly producing from eight to ten young ones at a birth, 

 while the number sometimes rises to a dozen or even more, 

 and never seems to be less than four. It is likewise a more 

 carnivorous creature, frequenting slaughter-houses and such- 

 like places, where it frequently swarms, and consumes, not 

 only such offal as it can procure, but picks clean all the bones 

 of animals left accessible to its attacks. 



Macgillivray observes that " in cities it frequently inhabits in 

 great numbers the drains and sewers, whence it makes its way 

 into the houses. In maritime towns it often takes up its abode 

 in the quays, among piles of wood, in buildings along the 

 shores, or wherever it finds a secure retreat. But it is not con- 

 fined to cities and villages, but establishes colonies in farm- 

 steadings, on the banks of canals and rivers, and even in 

 islands at a considerable distance from the mainland, or upon 



