RATS 139 



on board.' It makes its way up to the higher 

 rooms of the tenement houses in Indian cities, 

 where it nests and breeds undisturbed by the 

 human inhabitants. 



Day by day we passed them — 



Met them unaware, 

 Shambling through the lobbies, 

 Squatting on the stair. 



Not a rat among them 



Moved to give us place. 

 Staring with its cruel eye 



And its aged face. 



(F. Langridge.) 



Pennant ^ draws attention to the harm the 

 black rat causes by gnawing and devouring 

 not only edibles, but paper, cloth, water-pipes, 

 and even furniture. In England it makes a 

 lodge — either for the day's residence or a nest 

 for its young — near a chimney, and ' improves 

 the warmth by forming in it a magazine of 

 wool, bits of cloth, hay, or straw.' In the 

 East it nests in the indescribable rubbish and 

 ' unconsidered trifles ' the natives accumulate 

 in their rooms, and is seldom, if ever, interfered 

 with. 



Its climbing-habits enable it to ascend trees, 

 and in India it frequently nests among the 

 branches. In some tropical islands M. rattus 



^ British Zoology. London, 1812. 



