Class L BLACK RAT. HI 



or granaries, and nature has furnished it with 

 fore-teeth of such strength, as enable it to force 

 its way through the hardest wood, or oldest 

 mortar. It makes a lodge, either for its day's 

 residence, or a nest for its young, near a chim- 

 ney, and improves the warmth by forming 

 in it a magazine of wool, bits of cloth, hay 

 or straw. It begins to breed under the age of 

 one year, and goes with young about six weeks, 

 breeds frequently in the year, and brings about 

 six or seven young at a time. They in- 

 crease so fast, as to over-stock their abode; 

 which often forces them, through deficiency of 

 food, to devour one another : an unnatural dis- 

 position which happily prevents even the human 

 race from becoming a prey to them : not but that 

 there are instances of their gnawing the extre- 

 mities of infants in their sleep. 



The greatest enemy the rats have is the weesel; 

 which makes infinitely more havoke among them 

 than the cat ; for the weesel is not only endowed 

 with superior agility, but, from the form of its 

 body, can pursue them through all their retreats 

 which are impervious to the former. The Brown 

 rat has also greatly lessened their numbers, and 

 in most places extirpated them : this will apo- 

 logize for a brief description of an animal once 

 so well known. 



