330 HISTOKV Of 



of their own size, follows them into their holes, where a desper- 

 ate combat ensues. The strength of each is pretty near equal ; 

 but the arms are very different. The rat, furnished with four 

 long tusks at the extremity of its jaw, rather snaps than bites ; 

 but the weasel, where it once fastens, holds, and continuing also 

 to suck the blood at the same time, weakens its antagonist, and 

 always obtains the victory. Mankind have contrived several 

 other methods of destroying these noxious intruders ; ferrets, 

 traps, and particularly poison ; but of all other poisons, I am 

 told that the nux vomica, ground and mixed with meal, is tie 

 most certain, as it is the least dangerous. 



To this species I will subjoin as a variety, the black uat,* 

 mentioned above, greatly resembling the former in figure, but 



* Nothing indicates any knowledge of tlus animal among the ancients, and 

 the modern authors who have spoken clearly on the subject, go no farther 

 back than the sixteenth century. Gessner is perhaps tlie first naturalist 

 nho has described it. Had this animal lived formerly as it does at present, 

 among us, and at our expense, it is not probable that all mention of it would 

 have been omitted, especially as we find notices of otlier animals of a similai' 

 kind, less remarkable and less destructive, such as the Mouse, Dormouse, 

 &c. Some naturalists think with Linnajus and Pallas, that we have received 

 it from America, and others believe that it is a present of our own to that 

 country, made after we had ourselves received it from the eastern regions. 

 To this question it is perhaps impossible to reply, and with the lights which 

 we possess on the subject, conjecture is but a frivolous amusement. It is 

 certain that the Rat is to be found in all the warm and temperate climates 

 of the globe, that it is wonderfully common in Persia, and multiplied to a 

 prodigious extent in the western islands, whore it is not obliged by winter to 

 seek a refuge in the habitations of man, but where the fields during the en 

 tiro year present it ^lith abundance of nutriment In all this part of 

 America, accordingly, it has become a perfect scourge, from its ravages and 

 devastations. In fact, the Rat cousmnes an immense quantity of provision, 

 and destroys or damages still more than it consumes, particularly in the 

 fields, as it cuts up from the roots plants of which it cats but a portion. 



With us its favourite abode is in barns or granaries, under straw roofs, 

 or in deserted houses. Sometimes it will burrow in the earth like the Sur- 

 mulot, or Brown Rat, when it can get no other habitation. Though this 

 last-mentioned specias does not mix with the Common or black Rat now 

 under c^nsideratiou, and even may sometimes destroy it, yet the natural 

 antipathy commonly supposed to exist between them is an error. The 

 Surmulots do not necessarily exclude the Rats from their vicinity, nay, the 

 two species often live luider the same slielter, and in contiguous burrows, 

 lliia occurs when the place of their establishment affords food in abundance , 

 and excludes the necessity of mutual w-arfare for subsistence. In the con- 

 trary case, we find that the Surmulots not only destroy the Rats, but that 

 the latter, as is « ell lul■J^vn, will devoiu- one another. 



