3 1 4 MURIDiE. 



a difficulty in rearing any tame ones, because of the 

 attacks of the Rats." 



The habits of the Brown Rat are thus generally similar 

 to those of the Black Rat. They are even more prolific, 

 breeding several times in the year, and producing as many 

 as ten, twelve, or fourteen at a birth. It would be easy 

 to multiply facts and anecdotes of this curious animal; 

 but enough has been said to exhibit it as a sagacious, 

 bold, and annoying plague, whose extirpation is provided 

 against by these qualities, as well as by its astonishing 

 fecundity. 



The best mode of destroying the Rat is by means of 

 the traps first employed by j\Ir. Board, whose plan is 

 detailed in a little work written for the purpose. This 

 ])]an has been adopted in the Zoological Gardens with 

 great success. 



Rats feed on every article of household consumption; 

 and they also make great havoc in the fields with corn, 

 beans, and other grain and pulse, of which, after eating 

 their fill, they carry off a large quantity, and deposit it in 

 their runs. They are also sad depredators in the poultry- 

 yard and game-preserves, devouring numbers of eggs 

 and young, both of domestic poultry and of game. 



The Brown Rat considerably resembles the old English 

 or Black Rat ; it is, howevei', somewhat larger: the head 

 is less elongated ; the muzzle less acute ; the ears smaller ; 

 the tail comparatively much shorter. The ears and muz- 

 zle are nearly naked ; the tail with about one hundred 

 and eighty scaly rings, each scale having a small hair or 

 two growing from beneath it. Colour of the upper parts 

 greyish-brown with a tawny tint, resulting from each 

 hair being dusky grey at the roots, and yellowish-brown 

 at the extremity ; a few stifFer blackish hairs are also 



