v_ 



FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 75 



catcher on every estate, who is paid a reward of so much 

 per dozen for the rats' tails he brings in, rats are very 

 cheap. These rats' tails might perhaps be utilised, for a 

 paragraph going the round of the papers tells us, that at a 

 recent banquet at the Trois Frferes, Paris, the novel 

 feature of rats'-tail soup was introduced ; but it did not 

 come up to ox-tail by any means. 



Everyone has heard of rats being eaten during the 

 siege of Paris ; but perhaps it is not knOwn that in 

 Belgium a society of rat-eaters has been formed. 



After the siege of Paris, when rats' flesh was at a 

 premium and the rodents were nearly exterminated in 

 the crusade carried on against them, these animals once 

 more increased prodigiously, until the great sewers which 

 run beneath the streets of the city now swarm with 

 them, and hence frequent battues have to be made with 

 packs of terriers by the municipal authorities. 



The Rev. J. G. Wood, a well-known naturalist, lec- 

 turing recently, spoke very favourably of rat pie. 



" It is made," he says, " in precisely the same manner 

 as rabbit pie, the only difference being that in the case 

 of the rat pie the result is far more delicious. The cook 

 should be careful to procure as fine rats as possible, cut 

 off their tails, skin, dress, and wash them, then cut 

 them into four pieces, and add a few morsels of pork fat. 

 When cooked and cold the pie is full of the most 

 delicious jelly." He had often, he added, been dining 

 with his friends when they left the most delicious viands 

 on the table untouched, while every scrap of the rat pie 

 had been devoured. 



Dr. BuUer says a native rat formerly abounded to such 

 an extent in the wooded parts of New Zealand, that it con- 

 stituted the principal animal food of the Maori tribes of 

 that period. The introduced Norway rat {Mus decumanus) 

 has now exterminated and supplanted its predecessor. 



The loir or dormouse (Myoxus glis, Lin., Desm.) was 

 once in great request as a dainty for the table, numbers 

 being cooped up and artificially fattened by the Romans. 

 It is even now eaten in Italy. 



