MAMMALS 



cases totally blind, were captured through a 

 succession of years about our house and 

 grounds at Great Marlow. The greater 

 number and the first of these blind mice were 

 caught in the stable, which induces me to 

 mention that an Icelandic pony of mine went 

 blind, and to wonder whether the form of 

 ophthalmia from which he suffered can have 

 been contagious, and communicated itself to 

 some of the mice, among whom it spread and 

 continued rife for a good many years, though 

 no horse or other domestic animal took it. I am 

 however uncertain as to the year in which I 

 first noticed these blind mice, and whether 

 therefore it coincided with the going blind of 

 the pony. A 'singing mouse' (always caused, 

 I believe, by lung disease) was given me on 

 12 October 1889, by Mr. F. Rowe, jun., of 

 Great Marlow, captured in his father's house 

 if I remember right, at any rate locally. The 

 ' singing,' which was very strong at first, 

 gradually lost its fulness, and in the afternoon 

 of 6 December the mouse died suddenly in a 

 fit. In ten pregnant mice, obtained at 

 various places in the south of the county, 

 and all between January and May, but in 

 different years, I found nine, seven (twice), 

 six (four times), five, four and two foetuses, or 

 an average litter of nearly six. One occa- 

 sionally meets with examples abnormally 

 dark, and occasionally one slightly lighter 

 than usual, but I have never met with a 

 really black or a white specimen in a wild 

 state. Mrs. Raikes of Chandos Villa, Buck- 

 ingham, informs me (in a letter, 9 May 

 1903) that she has seen in that neighbour- 

 hood ' some of a cream colour.' 



[Black Rat. Mus rattus, Linn. 



I never heard of a black rat in Bucks, and 

 it is probably a good many years since the 

 last straggler in the county made way for 

 the brown species. I have kept a few 

 examples of the black rat in captivity, 

 obtained elsewhere.] 



25. Brown Rat. Mus decumanus, Pallas. 



A plague in Bucks as everywhere else. I 

 have no doubt that brown rats are far more 

 numerous now than when I first made 

 acquaintance with the species, as is only to 

 be expected considering how prolific they are, 

 and that man continues to exercise all his 

 ingenuity and energy to encourage them 

 by destroying all their natural enemies. It 

 does not seem to be generally known that 

 the adult buck rats live by themselves, and 

 when one is captured in a mixed company it 

 is only because he chanced to be at the 

 moment visiting his harem. I knew several 



holes at Marlow which (when in use) would 

 contain a single old buck, and no amount 

 of ferreting or trapping could produce a 

 second inhabitant. In perhaps a fortnight's 

 time, after having forcibly removed the oc- 

 cupant, the hole would be again used, and 

 again proved to hold a single male rat, and so 

 on, year after year. These buck habitations 

 are much shorter and less complicated than 

 the buries occupied by the does and young, 

 which are frequently very extensive. Another 

 point not, I think, generally known is that if 

 several live rats are put together in a cage 

 (the more the merrier) they settle quietly 

 down after a very few minutes, and any one 

 may put his hand in and pull the rats about 

 without their attempting to bite. One day 

 a friend sent me (at Marlow) about a score 

 of live rats in a sack, which had just been 

 caught while thrashing. I emptied the sack 

 into a cage trap, and walked off with my 

 prize, but the weight of so many rats was too 

 much for the springs of the door, and it 

 opened, letting them all escape in a moment. 

 My dog killed one before I could stop him, but 

 I recovered all the others alive single-handed. 

 On one occasion a steel-trap which I had set 

 over night in our house at Great Marlow 

 was sprung, but contained only the severed 

 foot of the rat. Two or three days after- 

 wards, while looking for young sparrows 

 among creepers on trellis-work on the house, 



I saw the large eye of something in a 

 nest, and before I had time to get my hand 

 there out jumped a large rat, which my dog 

 stopped directly it reached the ground, and I 

 found this was the owner of the severed foot, 

 which in this freshly maimed condition had 

 taken up its abode where it had to climb about 



I 1 feet up and down each time. In March 

 1893, at Great Marlow, one pregnant doe 

 rat contained six foetuses ; two each con- 

 tained seven, one contained eight, and one 

 eleven ; quite a small doe at Poynetts (Ham- 

 bleden), May 1 903, contained twelve, or an 

 average of eight and a half young in a litter. 

 I snared a buck rat which weighed lib., 

 which is the heaviest weight I have person- 

 ally proved, but I have handled many 

 examples considerably larger and no doubt 

 heavier. When brown rats are swimming 

 in shallow water it is possible to pin them 

 with the bifid end of a punt pole; and one 

 can harpoon them with a boat-hook in any 

 situation. Some years ago when on the river 

 with two cousins (girls), I caught sight of a 

 rat swimming in mid-river. Getting to the 

 bow of the boat, and directing my cousins 

 how to row, we presently, in spite of his 

 many doublings and of the awkward trim of 



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