CHAP, VII.) RATS. 69 
follows :—For the space of a fortnight feed the rats with good 
wholesome meal and water in some quiet room or cellar accessible 
to all these troublesome inmates of your house. At first two or 
three rats may find it out; these are sure to lead others to the 
place, till the whole, company of freebooters go for their share. 
As soon as you see that they seem to have collected in numbers 
in your feeding-room, season your meal with plenty of arsenic, 
and you may be pretty sure of its being all devoured. Continue 
giving them this till you find no more come, and by that time 
probably there are none left alive in the house. The only danger 
is, that some of them may die behind the wainscots of your 
rooms, in which case you must either open the place and search 
till you find the dead animal, or you must vacate that room tili 
the dreadful stench is over. That rats carry off hens’ and even 
turkeys’ eggs to some considerable distance is a fact; how thev 
accomplish this feat I should like to know, as they do it without 
breaking the shell, or leaving any mark upon it. A crow or 
magpie, Columbus like, shortens the difficulty by sticking the 
lower mandible of his bill into a hen’s egg when he wants to 
carry it off, but this is beyond a rat’s capabilities; nevertheless, 
eggs form one of their favourite repasts. The increase of rats, 
if left to breed in peace, would exceed that of almost any other 
animal, as they produce broods of six or eight young ones in 
rapid succession, throughout the greatest part of the year. In 
building a nest for her young, the female carries off every soft 
substance which she can tind; pieces of lace, cloth, and above 
all, paper, seem to be her favourite lining. 
The natural destroyers in this country of this obnoxious animal 
seem to be, the hen-harrier, the falcon, the long-eared and the 
tawny owl, cats, weasels, and stoats; and, ante omnes, boys of 
every age and grade wage war to the knife against rats, where- 
ever and whenever they can find them. 
As for rat-catchers—find me an honest one, and I will forfeit 
my name. I would as soon admit a coiony of rats themselves, 
as one of these gentry to my house,—not but what I have amused 
myself by learning slight tricks of the trade from one of these 
representatives of roguery and unblushing effrontery, but, fas est 
et ab hoste doceri. Rats swarm about the small towns in this 
country where the herrings are cured, living amongst the stones 
