THE BROWN RAT 



the adult rats at the beginning of our operations 

 had learned their lesson by seeing their comrades 

 captured or poisoned, but this does not account for 

 the wariness of the several succeeding generations 

 of rats, which were as careful to avoid the traps 

 and poisoned food as were their parents and grand- 

 parents. The only apparent explanation is that 

 rats have a means of communicating knowledge of 

 vital importance to one another from generation to 

 generation, and that they possess the capacity not 

 only to receive the mental impression, but to 

 understand it and act inteUigently upon it. 



The Brown Rat is a cannibal, and when food is 

 scarce the stronger prey upon the weaker. It is 

 also slowly but surely exterminating its cousin, the 

 Black Rat (Rattus rattus), which, prior to the advent 

 of the Brown Rat, had established itself in the 

 various communities of men. The Brown Rat 

 begins breeding when only about half-grown, pro- 

 ducing four to six at a birth ; but when fully adult 

 it produces from five -to fifteen at a birth, and 

 several litters annually. The nest is made of any 

 material available which can be shredded, such as 

 straw, paper, cloth, bark, shavings, etc. The nest 

 is placed at the end of a burrow, amongst lumber, 

 under floors, in haystacks, or any other sheltered 

 and secluded situation. 



For some years we have kept a number of Albino 

 Rats of the Brown species at the Port Elizabeth 

 Museum. These breed at frequent intervals, pro- 



