THE COMMON BROWN RAT. 333 



the present century, and has driven out of the houses a smaller 

 species, of a pretty chocolate brown colour on the back, chesnut 

 brown on the sides, and white on the belly, with a fine short fur, 

 and a short silky tail."* Sir Charles Price, who had an estate 

 in Jamaica infested by rats, imported, with much trouble, a very 

 large and strong species to extirpate the others. " The new 

 comers," we are told, " answered his purpose beyond his expec- 

 tation j for having attacked the native rats with such spirit, that 

 in a short time none were left, they extended their exertions to 

 the cats, and killed them also ; and since then, Sir Charles 

 Price's rats, as they are called, have increased so prodigiously, 

 that they are now a greater nuisance to the island than all their 

 predecessors. "f 



The length of the brown rat, from the head to the end of the 

 body, is about ten inches and three-quarters, or, including the 

 tail, nearly one foot and seven inches. The head and upper part 

 of the body is light brown, mixed with tawny and ash colour ; 

 the end of the nose, the throat, and the belly, are dirty white 

 inclining to grey ; the feet and legs are almost bare, and of a 

 dirty pale flesh colour ; the beginning of the tail is light brown, 

 but the remainder of it consists of about one hundred and 

 eighty scaly rings of a dusky colour, each ring having one or 

 two hairs growing from beneath it. 



It is the most destructive of our smaller mammals, devouring 

 our meat, rabbits, poultry, game, birds, fish, corn, and other 

 articles of food ; nor does its mischief end there, for it gnaws 

 our furniture, clothes, books, papers, &c. If assailed by man, it 

 has sometimes the audacity to spring upon him and inflict a 

 severe wound. It is related that, several years ago, four con- 

 demned criminals in Newgate managed to descend from a 

 water-closet into a sewer, having formed the daring project of 

 proceeding along it to the Thames ; but by the time they got as 

 far as Fleet-market, they were beset by such legions of rats, 

 that the unhappy men screamed with agony -, and the people 



* Mag. Nat. Hist. (New Series, 1840), vol. iv. p. 55. 



f Lewis's Journal of a West India Proprietor in Jamaica. 



