198 LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



larger islands, to which it has been introduced by shipping. 

 Thus, on many of the islets of the Hebrides it is found in 

 considerable numbers, feeding on grass, shell-fish, and crusta- 

 ceans, and burrowing in the banks ; for although not essenti- 

 ally amphibious, like the Water-Rat, it does not hesitate on 

 occasion to betake itself to the water, and troops have been seen 

 swimming from one island to another. 



" It is a very cleanly animal, for even when its residence is a 

 ditch or sewer in the midst of all sorts of filth, it almost in- 

 variably preserves itself from pollution; and in parts remote 

 from towns its fur is often possessed of considerable beauty, 

 although, on account of the injury it inflicts upon us, and the 

 abhorrence with which in childhood we are taught to regard it, 

 few persons will be apt to discover much beauty in a Rat. Its 

 food consbts of almost every kind of animal and vegetable sub- 

 stance eaten by other quadrupeds. In granaries and corn- 

 fields it is extremely destructive, committing its depredations 

 in the former by night, and in the latter feasting at leisure in 

 the heart of the stacks, where it produces its young, and whence 

 it cannot be expelled until they are taken down, when the quan- 

 tity of grain it has destroyed is sometimes found to be enormous. 

 In houses it feeds on bread, potatoes, suet, tallow, flesh, fish, 

 cheese, butter, and, in fact, almost everything that comes in its 

 way, including leather and articles of apparel. It gnaws its way 

 through planks, partitions and chests; burrows with facility 

 under the floors and walls ; nestles behind the plaster, or in 

 the roofs ; and when numerous becomes a source of perpetual 

 annoyance. In the poultry-yard it sometimes destroys the young 

 chickens, and sucks the eggs ; and in game-preserves commits 

 similar depredations. Instances of its mutilating infants, and 

 even of it attacking grown persons, are known ; and when 

 hard pushed it will sometimes turn on a Dog or Cat, and 

 defend itself with great vigour. In the fields it devours great 



