THE GEAY RAT. 295 



commence immediately, but for several months 

 thereafter as in the instance just recorded 

 every stream and ditch within the vicinity of 

 the migration may harbour more rats than usual. 



POWERS OF PRECONCEPTION. 



Many curious stories have been told about the 

 gray rat's powers of preconception or prescience, 

 and it is, of course, commonly believed that rats 

 will leave a doomed ship, just as it is gruesomely 

 said that a shark will follow a ship carrying a 

 corpse. It is a matter of history that when, in 1887, 

 a great fire broke out among some warehouses on 

 the Thames Embankment, the rats were seen to 

 leave the buildings in a closely packed army some 

 hours before the fateful spark began its dread work, 

 and, swimming together, were observed to put the 

 river between themselves and the scene of the 

 coming conflagration. 



During the early Zeppelin raids an old country- 

 house in Norfolk was struck by a bomb and 

 demolished by fire, and I remember reading in the 

 local press a letter from the lady of the house, who, 

 on the evening of the disaster, was alone in one 

 of the downstairs rooms. At about 9.30 she was 

 very much disturbed by the activities of the rats in 

 the walls, stating that ' it sounded as though they 

 were hurriedly leaving the building.' After twenty 

 minutes or so, silence fell, and close upon eleven 

 the air-ship was heard overhead. 



Unconvincing though such reports may seem, 

 there is no doubt whatever that rats will leave the 

 banks of a stream subject to sudden spate some 

 time before the water rises to flood them out 

 even though the storm which causes the water 

 to rise may have occurred some miles away, so 



