GARDEN ANIMALS. 519 



We have the Brown Rat {Mus demmanus, fig. 11 14), a voracious 



and ferocious brute, which has been introduced into this country, and 



has extirpated our national Blacl< Rat {Mus rattiis). 



" Curse me the British vermin, the rat ! 

 I know not whether lie came in the Hanover ship, 

 But I know that he lies and hstens mute 

 In an ancient mansion's crannies and holes."— Tennyson. 



It breeds in our place, and destroys our young chickens, injures our 

 cats, and eats our seeds and garden produce. A former gardener 

 stated that one of these creatures made a nest of a valuable specimen 

 of Irish fern. In autumn they occasionally visit us in colonies. They 

 may be poisoned by phosphoric rat paste ; but if cats, or perhaps if 

 pigs, eat these poisoned rats, they are liable to be also destroyed. 

 Phosphoric rat paste is made by preparing a mixture of oatmeal in 

 hot water, and then stirring in some sticks of phosphorus, which melts 

 and becomes disseminated through the mixture. The rat mines with 

 facility, and hence we have great difficulty in preventing it from 

 going where it chooses. It hoards large stores of nuts, corn, and 

 other food. 



We have never seen the Black Rat at my garden, although several 

 have been caught at Finsbury Circus, some of which were sent to the 

 Zoological Gardens. Rats are readily tamed. I have seen French 

 soldiers at reviews with pet rats on their shoulders. I had one which was 

 pleased to sit on a servant's shoulder when he traversed London. 



" A rat, a rat ! clap to the door — 

 The cat comes bouncing on the floor : 

 Oh for the heart of Homer's mice, 

 Or gods to save them in a trice." — Pope. 



We have the Common Mouse {Mus musculus, fig. 1115). It is a 

 pretty creature, but very mischievous, eating our seeds and bulbs. 

 When they are troublesome, if the cats do not destroy them, we trap 

 them. The phosphoric rat paste is very poisonous to them. 



"The cat, with eyne of burning coal, 

 Now couches 'fore the mouse's hole." 



The Field Mouse {Mus sylvatica, fig. 11 16) used to exist in vast 



