SOME BIRD NOTES 235 



the process of evisceration was commenced by the crows at 

 the tail end of the rats. It is probable that ' hoodie ' would 

 tackle a dead rabbit in a similar manner." 



RATS continued 



" Anopheles " went on to discourse further on rats, remark- 

 ing : " Although justly attributed a plague to the farmer in 

 this eastern part of England (on the small estate referred to 

 above several thousands are killed annually by the keeper), 

 it would seem that the common brown rat [Mus decumanus\ 

 is not nearly so common in some other parts of the country. 

 For example, a friend from Westmoreland told me the other 

 day that a rat in his county might almost be reckoned a 

 rara avis ; it was quite an exceptional thing to meet with 

 one. The question of food supply probably determines its 

 distribution, and although omnivorous, the adoption of the 

 four-course shift in this county would tend to provide him 

 with a varied and plentiful diet at all seasons of the year." 



I lived for some months in Lancashire, an adjoining 

 county, and found the part I resided in swarming with the 



hated rodent. At P Gardens the slopes of the lake 



were riddled with their burrows, and they fed boldly with 

 the water-fowl at all hours of the day. They perforated the 

 lawn in front of the gardener's house until it was like an 

 overcrowded rabbit burrow ; they undermined the house 

 itself. They swarmed my monkey-house at night and 

 cleared away all that the monkeys could not stow away 

 at supper-time. They killed foreign birds wholesale, not 

 scrupling to devour a sick cockatoo. The only other place 

 I ever saw so rat-infested was the slaughter-yard where (in 

 1890) they killed the horses for the carnivorous animals in 



D Zoological Gardens. The remnants of the carcases 



used then to be allowed to lie out on the concreted area to 

 be carted away by the knacker when he came to do the 

 next day's killing. There was little left but bare bones for 

 him. to take back with him. It seemed that a previous 

 superintendent had been a greater admirer of rat-killing 

 dogs than his more legitimate charges, and so the brutes 

 were allowed a very free rein as regards their population 

 question. I went one or two nights with a lantern to see 



