70 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS. ICHAP. vn. 



of the harbours and rocks on the shore, and issuing out in great 

 numbers towards nightfall, to feed on, the stinking remains of 

 the fish. 



They have been seen migrating from these places at the end 

 of the fishing-season in compact bodies and in immense numbers. 

 They then spread themselves, an invading host, amongst the 

 farm-houses and stack-yards in the neighbourhood ; repairing 

 again to the coast for the benefit of a fish diet and sea air, when 

 their wonderful instinct tells them that the fishing-season has 

 again commenced. But I really must finish the subject, or my 

 reader will be as tired as I am myself of these accounts of the 

 unprincipled greediness and voracity of the Hanoverian or Grey 

 Rat, who has made for itself a home in this country, after nearly 

 extirpating the original indigenous and much less vile race of 

 British rats. 



