353 Ground Vermin. 



companionship, or sometimes snugly huddled up together 

 in a batch, separating one from another only when their 

 appetites move them so to do, or to attain certain things 

 which are only within reach in the daytime. Rats are by 

 no means selfish about any provender which they may 

 individually obtain ; on the contrary, in the event of 

 a certain member of a family discovering a delicacy, it 

 either fetches its friends and relatives to the spot or 

 conveys the tempting morsel to the general meeting-place 

 during the day. Hence rats will often put themselves to 

 extreme trouble to transport such unwieldy articles as eggs, 

 potatoes, carrots, beetroots, &c. Rats frequenting hedge- 

 rows and banks, of course, cannot adopt this mode of 

 living, and repair to the burrows they have constructed at 

 such time as they may deem rest or sleep needful the day 

 not being with them synonymous with quiet and sleep, as 

 with those inhabiting buildings. 



To enumerate the various substances which may serve 

 as food for rats is not necessary. It will suffice to point 

 out their chief victims of a furred or feathered kind. 

 First of these may be mentioned poultry, which at all 

 times and at every stage suffer more or less from their 

 voracity. Whether it be fowls' or ducks' eggs, chickens 

 or ducklings, is immaterial. Poultry, pigeons, and pets of 

 various sorts fall victims to these vermin. 



By the pond and riverside they are no less mischievous, 

 for, in addition to waging a war upon the inoffensive 

 water-voles into whose homes they have intruded, they 

 kill many a young fish and water-bird, besides honey- 

 combing the banks with their tortuous and extended rami- 

 fications. In the hedges, too, they are depredatory, 

 destroying all kinds of eggs, game and otherwise, besides 

 any young partridges, pheasants, rabbits, or leverets that 

 may fall into their clutches. 



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