THE BROWS' RAT. 



107 



almost exclusively upon tiie latter. The common BROWX EAT (Mus decumanus), sometimes called 

 the Norway Rat, which is almost too well known to need description, is not a native of Great 

 Britain, but was certainly introduced there by commerce, probably from some southern or 

 eastern country perhaps, as Pennant thinks, from the East Indies. Haunting ships in great numbers, 

 it has now been introduced into all parts of the world, and it is quite impossible to ascertain its 

 original habitat. It was known in Asia long before it made its appearance in Europe; and its passage 

 into Russia is fixed by Pallas in the year 1727, when, he says, after an earthquake it swam across 

 the Volga from the countries bordering the Caspian. Its first appearance in France and England is 

 said to have occurred about the middle of the last century. 



From its great fecundity and determined ferocity of disposition, the Brown Rat has become a 

 great pest wherever it has taken up its abode. " It digs," says Professor Bell, " with great facility and 





BLACK RAT. 



vigour, making its way with rapidity beneath the floors of our houses, between the stones and bricks 

 of walls, and often excavating the foundations of dwellings to a dangerous extent. There are many 

 instances of their fatally undermining the most solid mason-work, or burrowing through dams which 

 had for ages served to confine the waters of rivers and canals." It is almost impossible to keep them 

 out of our houses, and, once in, there is no end to the mischief they do. Their ferocity is very great ; 

 and although they will, if possible, retreat from a powerful enemy, they will fight in the most savage 

 fashion when they cannot escape. 



Although not averse to a vegetable diet as those who have to do with corn and seeds, whether 

 in the field or the store-house, know to their cost the Brown Rat evinces a decided preference for 

 animal food, which he consumes of all kinds and in all states. The case of the horse slaughter-houses 

 of Montfaucon, near Paris, is well known ; here, the carcases of all the Horses killed during the day, 

 sometimes to the number of thirty- five, would be picked to the bone by the next morning ; and one 

 main argument against the removal of the establishment to a greater distance from the city was that 

 these swarms of ferocious vermin would be left without means of support, and would become a complete 

 pest in the neighbourhood. That such an apprehension was not unfounded is proved by several 

 instances recorded of the escape of Rats from wrecked ships upon small islands. In the course of 



