358 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



lands, a moonlit winter's night is a favourite season for this 

 sport. 



When the marshes are white fields and the dikes and 

 rivers are leaden, and the moon shines down on the white 

 powdery landscape, the ratter and his mate, well muffled tip, 

 will go with their dogs to the farmer's ricks, one going 

 round the rick one way, the other taking the opposite 

 path, both the rat-catchers kicking the brittle straw sharply, 

 their warm breath coming and going in the cold, clear night, 

 as their dogs stand all alert, when suddenly a rat jumps 

 from the rick through the moonlight to the snowy carpet ; 

 the dog yelps, there is a scuffle in the snow for a moment, 

 a shriek, and a fierce shaking, and the rat drops dead and 

 crumpled from the dog's teeth. And in two hours' ratting 

 by moonlight experts can kill as many as they do in a day. 

 Finally, it puzzles the adept ratter to know why he never 

 kills a young rat by night ; but such, they aver, is the case. 



2. LARGE BROWN RAT. 



The rat already described may be called the rat of the 

 Broad farms and outbuildings, but the large brown rat is 

 par excellence the rat of the marshes, broads, and rivers, 

 and dikes : these are his hunting-grounds the fields and 

 marshes ; therefore is he the farmer's most dread enemy. 



For his headquarters are in the " walls " and hedgerows,, 

 his foraging grounds the mangold, turnip, and corn fields, 

 He is especially destructive to wheat, barley, and turnip 

 crops whilst in the ground, for he never goes near the barns ; 

 those are the hunting-grounds of his brothers already de- 

 scribed. 



In March he makes his nest in a mangold balk or 

 "holl," and the female is pregnant about a month before 

 the dozen youngsters are born. These, too, breed every 

 six weeks, and go on breeding till the end of September, 

 more rarely having a litter in winter than his barn relatives. 



