CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 1. RODENTIA. 451 



lar. She soon returned, and gasping for breath, rushed into the room exclaiming — "Tis all ^one 

 ma'am;' and sure enough it was all gone. 'The ghost has taken it!' Not a drop was left, only 

 the empty cask remained, the side was half eaten away, and marks of sharp teeth were visible 

 round the rugged margins of the newly made bung-hole. 



"This discovery fully accounted for the noise the ghost had made, which caused so much alarm, 

 The aboriginal rats in the dame's cellar had found out the wine, and communicated the joyful 

 news to all the other rats in the parish ; they had assembled there to enjoy the fun, and get very 

 tipsy — which, judging from the noise they made, they certainly did — on this treasured cask of 

 wine. Being quite a family party they had finished it in two nights, and having gol all thev 

 could, like wise rats they returned to their respective homes, perfectly unconscious that their 

 merry-making had nearly been the death of the rightful owner and 'founder of the feast." They 

 had first gnawed out the cork, and got as much out as they could ; they soon found that the more 

 they drank the lower the wine became. Perseverance is the motto of the rat, so they set to work 

 and ate away the wood to the level of the wine again. This they continued till they had emp- 

 tied the cask; they must then have got into it and licked up the last drains, for another and less 

 agreeable smell was substituted for that of wine. I may add, that this cask, with the side gone 

 and the marks of the rats' teeth, is still in my possession." 



As evidence that rats may be tamed, we have the following: "A gentleman traveling through 

 Mecklenburg about forty years ago, was witness to a very singular circumstance in the post-house 

 at New Hargard. After dinner, the landlord placed on the floor a large dish of soup, and gave 

 a loud whistle. Immediately there came into the room a mastiff, a fine Angora cat, an old raven, 

 and a remarkably large rat, with a bell about its neck. They all four went to the dish, and with- 

 out disturbing each other, fed together, after which the dog, cat, and rat lay before the fire, while 

 the raven hopped about the room. The landlord, after accounting for the familiarity which ex- 

 isted among these animals, informed his guest that the rat was the most useful of the four, for the 

 noise he made had completely freed the house from the other rats and mice with which it had 

 previously been infested. 



"When carrying on my observations on rats, I bought a pair of piebalds, and put them in a 

 Ward's case, which formed a capital cage for them. In the course of a few weeks my colony in- 

 creased to an enormous extent: I had specimens of almost every kind of rat — the pure white 

 albino rat with pink eyes, the common brown rat, the true black rat, and the snake or ship-rat. 

 I had to pay several shillings for my black rat, but he was a fine beast. By taking trouble I ob- 

 tained some very remarkable crosses: I had one litter half albino half black — the white the color 

 of snow, the black the color of coal. Their physiognomy, too, was very peculiar, and a rat from 

 this lot might readily have been taken for a new species ; they were really very pretty creatures. 

 I could never obtain a cross between a black and a brown rat, except through the medium of a 

 hybrid in whom the blood of the black breed existed. Of the cross between the brown and white 

 rat I had many live specimens, so many, indeed, that periodically I took a bagful to the Zoologi- 

 cal Gardens, for the benefit of the snakes. All my rats knew me well. The moment 1 came to 

 the room they swarmed round the door of the cage, and I was obliged to keep them back while 

 I put in their food, as a huntsman does his hounds. At feeding-time there was not a single 

 rat in the cage that I could not take up and handle with impunity; they never offered to bite 

 me. If, however, a stranger tried to touch them, they were all up on their hind-legs in a fighting 

 attitude in a moment. 



"Talking of tame rats, I knew a worthy whipmaker who worked hard at his trade to support 



a large family. He had prepared a number of strips of leather, by well oiling and greasing the m. 



He carefully laid them by in a box, but strange to say, they disappeared one by one; nobody 



knew any thing about them, nobody had touched them. 



1 "However, one day as he was sitting at work in his shop, a large black rat, of the original 



British species, slyly poked his head up out of a hole in the corner of the room, and deliberately 



took a survey of the whole place. Seeing all quiet, out he came, and ran straight t<> the box 



_ wherein were kept the favorite leather strips. In he dived, and quickly reappeared, carrying in 



'• his mouth the most dainty morsel he could find. Off he ran to his hole, and quickly vanished. 



