454 VERTEBRATA. 



in which Rodolph, the hero of the story, is plunged into a cellar, where, amid the rising waters 

 which threaten to drown him, he is beset hy rats. This fanciful picture is but a representation of 

 the possible truth. One of the centers of attraction to these brutes in the French capital, is the 

 establishment at Montfaucon — already mentioned — for the killing of disabled horses. It was pro- 

 posed some years ago to remove this to a greater distance from the city, but it was objected 

 that the immense number of rats that had lone' congregated there would be dangerous to the 

 inhabitants in the vicinity. A government examination was ordered, and the facts reported are 

 startling. It appeared that the carcasses of the slaughtered horses, sometimes to the amount of 

 thirty-five per diem, are found next morning picked to the bare bone by the rats. A part of this 

 establishment is inclosed by solid walls, at the bottom of which several holes are made for the 

 entrance and exit of these vermin. Into this place Ihisuassois, the proprietor, put the dead bodies 

 of two or three horses, and having stopped up all the holes toward midnight, with as little noise 

 as possible, he, with several workmen, each bearing a torch in one hand and a stick in the other, 

 suddenly entered the inclosure, shut the door, and began a general massacre. Wherever a blow 

 was directed, even without aim, a rat was killed ; and those which attempted to escape by run- 

 ning up the walls were quickly knocked down. The dead of one night amounted to 2,G50; the 

 result of four hunts was 9,101 ; and by repeating the experiment at intervals of a few days, Dusu- 

 assois destroyed 10,050 rats in the space of a month. Now when it is recollected that the yard 

 in which these numbers were killed does not contain more than a twentieth of the area over 

 which the dead horses are spread, some idea may be formed of the multitudes that infest this 

 place ; indeed, the adjoining fields and eminences are riddled with their burrows, and their paths 

 thereto may be traced from the inclosures where the horses are slaughtered. It is probable that 

 the rats of both Paris and London greatly exceed in number the human inhabitants. 



We have a few facts to add to this long account in respect to the Black and Brown Rat, both 

 of which, long since domesticated in America, have become denizens of every part of the country. 

 Of the size, appearance, and habits of the former, it may be said they are the same as in that of 

 Europe. It is alike prolific and voracious; its winter abodes are barns and granaries, cellars and 

 outhouses, pig-sties and stables. In the summer it usually quits these haunts, and lives in the 

 woods and fields, but with the cold season it returns, making depredations not only in the pantry, 

 the larder, and the potato-bin, but in the granary, and even among eggs, ducks and chickens, if 

 such come in its way. It is less destructive in its nature than the Norway Rat, and has greatly 

 diminished before the superior strength and voracity of that species, but in some localities it still 

 exists in formidable numbers, and is a great pest. 



The American Norway Rat is also the same as its European brother. The stories of the fierce- 

 ness and voracity of the latter, some of which we have repeated, could be easily rivalled in respect 

 to the former. It has been said that the toes and parts of the feet of bed-ridden persons have 

 sometimes been eaten away by the Norway Rat of Europe ; thus the old German rhyme says — 



" A Saxon duke had grown so fat, 

 'Tis said that many a mouse and rat 

 Ate grots and labyrinths to dwell in 

 His palsied parts, without his feeling." 



In this country instances are recorded of the American species having attacked men while 

 asleep, and persons are sometimes met with showing a piece of the car or of the nose bitten out 

 in their childhood by these vicious brutes. They are exceedingly pugnacious, and when several 

 of them are together they are frequently seen fighting, biting, and squabbling among themselves. 

 They are very abundant in New York and other large cities, especially along the wharves and 

 dock.-, where they grow very large, and are called Wharf-Rats. 



Among the African species of this genus is the Barbauy Mouse, M. Barbarus, called Phar- 

 azef, or the Palmetto Mouse, by the natives. It is of a grayish-fawn color, with ten longitudinal 

 l.rown stripes along the back. Gervais says it is in size between the field-mouse and the black 

 rat. It is an exceedingly pretty animal, feeding on seeds and grain, and may be easily tamed, 

 when it becomes familiar and pleasing. It produces six to eight young at a birth, and is common 



