THE WHITE RAT 
E are so accustomed to think of 
WI arat as simply a pest, that we do 
not realize what the species have 
lived through in order to survive. 
We are quite in the habit of look- 
ing to the history of Europe for 
descriptions of great wars, but there 
was once a war in Europe that is not 
mentioned in the accounts of great 
battles which took place there; and yet, perhaps, this 
was the fiercest war of all, and it was waged be- 
tween two species of rats. 
Both of these European rat species are supposed to 
have originated in Asia, probably in China. One of 
them is the Black rat, more slender than our common 
species, being about seven inches in length, bluish 
black in color, and having large thin ears. There is 
no record of the way or of the time of this rat’s 
invasion of Europe from the Orient; but in 1300 
A.D. it was thoroughly established there. In 1727 
Europe was invaded by the species called, strangely, 
the Norway rat; this came from western China, and 
was a larger, fiercer and more dangerous animal than 
the Black species. In twenty-five years after it 
began to invade Russia, it had spread over all 
Europe, and had conquered, killed, and probably 
eaten the Black rats, which had been in possession of 
the region for so many centuries. 
A similar warfare took place in America, for 
probably with the ships of Columbus, and certainly 
in the Mayflower, the Black rats migrated from 
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