RATS AND MICE. 



155 



two leading tints on the sides of the head, the 

 breast, and the flanks. As regards the dis- 

 tribution of the colours, however, there are 

 numerous varieties. 



The hamster is a remarkably destructive 

 animal, which in many years multiplies with 

 almost incredible rapidity. It confines itself 

 to cultivated fields, where it digs tunnels in 

 all directions, and forms its nest and provision 



cellars. These it fills chiefly with grain, 

 which it carries home in its enormous cheek- 

 pouches. It is a real pest in Saxony and 

 Thuringia, where hamster years are recorded 

 as cockchafer years are elsewhere. In a 

 single year a hamster can store up as much 

 as a hundredweight of grain. All methods 

 are resorted to for its destruction, and its 

 provision stores when found are used like 



Fig. 2ii. — A Brown Rat (Mus decumanus) attacking a Black Rat (Mus raltus). 



grain kept in a granary. The hamster is at 

 once an ill-tempered and courageous animal, 

 which, small as it is, will spring at the throat 

 of dogs, bite men on the legs, and seek to 

 destroy every animal it meets with in order to 

 devour it. It is very fond of eggs and birds. 



Rats and Mice. 



This remarkably numerous group (Murina) 

 has the same sort of dentition as the hamsters, 

 cheek-teeth with tubercles and true roots, but 

 the cheek-pouches are absent, and the tail, 

 which is longer, is ringed, scaly, and sparsely 

 covered with hair, the hair being arranged in 

 accordance with the rings. The typical 

 genus may be divided into two groups: the 

 larger members forming the Rats, in which 

 the grooves of the palate run from the teeth 



on one side of the mouth to those on the 

 other side, and the smaller members forming 

 the Mice, in which these folds are separated 

 in the middle. In this genus are found, along 

 with the field-mice, the most disagreeable 

 pests of human dwellings. 



The Black Rat ( Mus rattus), fig. 211, 

 attains a length of 6 inches, while the tail 

 measures 7^ inches, and is furnished with at 

 least 260 rings. On the back this rat is of a 

 dark-brown colour, underneath rather lighter. 

 Till the beginning of last century it was the 

 master on European soil, and only occasion- 

 ally had to fight against another rat with 

 white belly, which was more common in the 

 south and in Egypt (Mus tectorum s. leuco- 

 gaster). It accompanied man wherever he 

 went, travelled round the whole earth on 



