GNAWERS. 103 



devouis wool, stuffs, and furniture of all sorts; eats through wood, 

 makes hiding-places in walls, thence issues in search of prey, and 

 frequently returns with as much as it is able to drag along with it, 

 forming, especially when it has young ones to provide for, a maga- 

 zine of the whole. The females bring forth several times in the 

 year, though mostly in the summer season ; and they usually pro- 

 duce five or six at a birth. 



In defiance of the cats, and notwithstanding poison, traps, 

 and every other approved method that is used to destroy these crea- 

 tures, they multiply so fast as frequently to do considerable damage. 

 On board a man-of-war they have been known to consume a hun- 

 dred weight of biscuits daily, and when, to destroy them, the ship 

 has been smoked between decks, six hampers a day have for some 

 time been filled with their carcasses. The Isle of France was 

 once abandoned on account of their immense swarms, and, even 

 now, they are a severe scourge to it. 



The Brown Rat, sometimes called the Norway Rat, is the 

 species usually found in the United States. It was many years since 

 imported into this country, and from its superior size, strength, and 

 ferocity, has so completely established itself, and expelled the 

 original Black Rat, that it is very difficult indeed to find a Black Rat 

 in any part of the United States. Waterton's sympathies are much 

 excited in favor of the original rat, and his anger is great against 

 the invader. He says of the Brown Rat : — "Its rapacity knows 

 no bounds, while its increase is prodigious, beyond all belief. But 

 the most singular part of its history is, that it has nearly worried 

 every individual of the original rat out of Great Britain. So scarce 

 have these last-mentioned animals become, that in all my life I 

 have never seen but one single solitary specimen. It was sent, 

 some few years ago, to Nostell Priory, in a cage, from Bristol, and 

 I received an invitation from Mr. Arthur Strickland, who was on 

 a visit there, to go and see it. Whilst I was looking at the little 

 native prisoner in its cage, I could not help exclaiming, ' Poor 

 injured Briton! hard, indeed, has been the fate of thy family! in 

 another generation, at furthest, it will probably sink do^n to the 

 dust for ever !' " 



