CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 7. RODENTIA. 449 



"An ingenious individual of Liskeard, Cornwall, has for some time past been exhibiting himself 

 in a dress composed from top to toe of rat-skins, which he has been collecting for three years and 

 a half. The dress was made entirely by himself; it consists of hat, neckerchief, coat, waistcoat, 

 trousers, tippet, gaiters and shoes. The number of rats required to complete the suit was six 

 hundred and seventy, and the individual, when thus dressed, appears exactly like one of the Es- 

 quimaux described in the travels of Parry and Ross. The tippet, or boa, is composed of the pieces 

 of skin immediately round the tails of the rats, and is a very curious part of the dress, containing 

 about six hundred tails — and those none of the shortest." 



"The tail is indeed a most useful appendage to the rat: it is composed of a chain of small 

 bones, with a multitude of muscles to move them. Many minute scales and short hair.- 

 cover it, and thus constructed it becomes prehensile, as the tails of many monkeys and lemurs : 

 in fact, a sort of hand to the rat, by means of which he is enabled to crawl along the tops 

 of railings, and along narrow ledges of walls, balancing himself by it, or entwining it round 

 the projecting portions of the difficult passages along which his course lies. By means of it, too, 

 he is enabled to spring up heights otherwise inaccessible, using it on these occasions — like the 

 kangaroo — as a lever, or rather as a projectile spring. When, moreover, according to a story 

 which requires confirmation, the delicious oil or sweet wine lies beneath his reach in the long- 

 necked bottle, his ever-useful tail serves him in good turn ; he dips it into the coveted fluid, and 

 then enjoys the reward of his sagacity, and says to himself, as he licks it up, 'What's a rat with- 

 out a tail?"' 



It has been said that the rat, in imitation of some other animals, uses his tail to catch fish, a 

 statement, to say the least, very apocryphal. Nevertheless, fiction or fact, it has been turned to 

 moral account in the following fable : 



"A rat with greedy appetite, 



Went fishing with his tail one night; 



He once had seen a fox do that — 

 'And if a fox, why not a rat? 



For surely he is quite as knowing 



As any other beast that's going.' 



Cocking his eye in fond conceit, 



That he knew fish as well as meat, 



He silent sat upon the shore, 



And bobbed for half an hour or more. 



At last, a hungry bite he felt, 



And deemed it roach, or perch, or smelt. 



Eager, but cautious, did he wait 



To let his prey grasp well the bait ; 



Then, like a fisher skilled and nice, 



He jerked ; but lo ! as in a vice 



His tail stuck fast ; and, strange as true, 



The more he pulled the worse it grew ! 



This way and that in vain he turned ; 



In vain he jerked, and jumped, and squirmed — 



In vain he yelled with pain and grief— 



In vaiu cried murder, fire, and thief! 



In vain ; for lo ! an oyster vast 



Had caught his tail, and held it fast ! 



At length, the rat perceived the case, 

 And putting on a smiling face — 

 Staying meanwhile his tears and groans, 

 Though pain and terror thrilled his bones — 

 Addressed the oyster thus : ' My friend, 

 There's some mistake; my latter end 

 "Was never made for feast or fete — 

 I only put it in for bait, 

 1 And as you've taken it, I opine 



That you are caught, and so are mine : 

 I pray you, therefore, oyster tender. 

 Just come ashore, and thus surrender.' 



Vol. I. — 57 



The oyster answered not a wink, 

 But in the wave began to sink ; 



