THIEVES OF THE NIGHT 



mouse.' 1 When the Crusaders went to the 

 Holy Land they met with plenty of rats. 

 Not big coarse rats like our present common 

 brown rat, but smaller, slim, smooth-coated, 

 elegant rats, with large ears and big black 

 eyes, so that they were more like large mice 

 than anything else. Linnaeus, the great 

 Swedish naturalist, saw this likeness, for he 

 named this kind of rat Mits rattus or the 

 ' mouse rat.' When the ships returned to 

 England from the Holy Land there can be 

 no question that many of these rats got on 

 board, and were in this way brought home.^ 

 At the present time there are often more ' Old 

 English ' or ' black ' rats on board ships than 

 any other kind. Once landed in this country, 

 they increased and spread from one end of it 

 to the other, and, being quick, active creatures, 

 were not content to stop in the outbuildings, 

 cellars, and basements, but went all over the 

 houses. The nuisance they must have been 

 we can hardly imagine in these days when 

 people are not often bothered by rats in 

 houses. What it must have meant can be 

 gathered from the damage that was done by 

 two which got loose at my home. After a great 



• Barrett-Hamilton's British Mammals, p. 679. " Ibid., p. 682. 



183 



