294 THE GRAY RAT. 



communities distributed with due regard for the 

 necessities of life, just as one can be quite sure that 

 they will drift back into the evacuated territory 

 immediately the conditions which led to their 

 sudden abandonment of it ameliorate. 



Such an invasion of rats must, indeed, be a 

 fearsome proposition for the fauna of the territory 

 they invade. A single rat is plucky enough and 

 fierce enough to attack any creature it imagines it 

 can pull down, and rats possess a power of combina- 

 tion which is unparalleled in the animal world. A 

 rat has only to utter a certain squeal in order to 

 bring to the vicinity every one of his fellows within 

 hearing, prepared to unite in a common attack, 

 so that an army of rats sweeping the country leaves 

 behind it an area of death and destruction. In 

 Northamptonshire some years ago an old mill was 

 burnt down, and the homeless rats sought temporary 

 shelter in a long strip of coppice adjoining. It was, 

 unhappily, in the spring of the year, and every nest 

 the wood contained was harried and laid waste, 

 in many cases the brooding birds being killed on 

 their nests. The keeper who watched the property 

 stated that it was some months ere pheasants 

 returned to the coppice in their normal numbers of 

 occupation, while the mice and the voles, with which 

 the dense undergrowth swarmed, must have been 

 entirely wiped out. Even the remains of devoured 

 rooks were found lying on the ground, though it is 

 not reasonable to suppose that the rats ascended 

 the tall pine-trees in which the rook colonies roosted. 



Such rat armies, however, do not remain long 

 united. They may travel together for the distance 

 of a mile or more, but after that every hundred 

 yards sees a considerable reduction in their 

 numbers. The spreading and the redistribution 



