CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 7. RODEXTIA 443 



straw, and hay for their young; the young of both are born blind and naked; both are exceed- 

 ingly prolific. The Black Rat is grayish-black above and ash-color beneath; its length is Beven 

 to eight inches; the tail a trifle more. The Brown Rat is nine to eleven inches long; the tail 

 about eight; it is grayish -brown above and grayish- white beneath. 



"There are," says an exceedingly amusing English author,* "two kinds of rats known in Great 

 Britain — the Black Rat and the Brown Rat. The Black Rat, or, as it is sometimes called, the 

 old English rat, does not seem to be an aboriginal occupier of the British soil. The earliest men- 

 tion of it is by Genner, in his Historia Animaliu?n, published at Zurich about the year 1587. It 

 is probable that it was introduced into this country from France, the Welsh name for it beino- to 

 this day, as I have it from a gentleman of Welsh extraction, Llygoden Ffrancon — 'the French 

 mouse ;' and I am, moreover, given to understand, on good authority, that it still abounds in the 

 barns and granaries scattered throughout Normandy. We all know the common Brown Rat 

 when we see it; the Black Rat is a different looking animal; he is much slighter in make, his 

 upper jaw projects further over the lower jaw than it does in the Brown Rat; his ears are much 

 larger, and his tail very much longer than in his first cousin, and lastly his color is a jet black, 

 with numerous long hairs projecting out from the lower fur-like coat. He is a very timid crea- 

 ture, and rarely shows fight ; he is, in fact, not very powerful, but his want of strength is made 

 up by his excessive activity. I have examined several, and found their bodies a mass of muscle 

 without a particle of fat." 



It is a fact that may as well be frankly admitted, that, in the whole code of animal legislation, 

 there is no such thing recognized as any sort of kindness to the "disabled and the aged," but 

 quite the contrary. Dogs always worry the dog that is down ; the herd forcibly eject the stricken 

 or the hunted deer; and, among animals of every kind, the weak are always driven to the wall. 

 This is not only what actually is, but, if the expression may be allowed, it is what should be. 

 There is no place in the economy of nature for an old and useless animal, any more than there is 

 for a withered leaf, farther than the gathering of it to the common store of materials. This does 

 not apply to human beings, because there is a part in them which does not share in the "dis- 

 abled and aged" state of the body, though its connection with material nature is of course weak- 

 ened by bodily decay; and, for the sake of this, the existence of which is demonstrated by Christi- 

 anity only, "Christian men" are bound to cherish the aged to the very last. With animals it is 

 quite the reverse ; their affection, if instinct ought under any circumstances to get such a name, 

 is all for the young and the vigorous; and their attacks are directed against the feeble and the 

 exhausted. If there is any hospitality in them it is Homer's hospitality — "Welcome the coming, 

 speed the going ;" and many of them — and the rats and mice among the rest — even in the most 

 small and delicate of their species, have no objection to Malthusianize, by applying the "positive 

 check," and eating the superabundant population of their own nests. 



That rat eats rat is indeed as well established as any other fact in natural history; it is especi- 

 ally true that the Norway Rat has waged such war on his cousin the Black Rat, which was his 

 predecessor in Europe and America, that the latter has become scarce where it once abounded, 

 and in some places is absolutely extinct. Several illustrations of this process of destruction on the 

 part of the Norway Rat are furnished by the writer just quoted, among which is the following: 



"Some years ago a London rat-catcher shut up together in a cage the result of his day's work, 

 consisting of several dozen rats, of both species, and put them away carefully for the night, their 

 intended fate being to afford sport to his employer's dogs the next morning. What was his as- 

 tonishment, when he came to fetch them, to find none but brown rats remaining! tin se canni- 

 bals having cruelly devoured all their sable brethren." 



In proof of the general cannibal propensities of rats we have the following: "I once had three 

 rats brought to me in a cage; in removing one it got hurt. I fed them, and put them into a 

 stable. The next morning there were only two rats in the cage, the injured rat having been set 



* F. T. Buckland, son of the celebrated geologist, Dr. Buckland, who has recently published a very clever little 

 work entitled "Curiosities of Natural History." It consists of free jottings down of hia own observations and expe- 

 rience in respect to various animals, and furnishes a large amount of curious knowledge, related in an easy, and at 

 ' the same time spicy manner. 



