8 



7ion'egicus) now the common rat of New England, is the largest, 

 sometimes reaching a length of nineteen inches, including the 

 tail. I have seen one taken that weighed nineteen ounces, 

 possibly they may grow much larger,^ but those commonly 

 seen are smaller. In New England this species is by far the 

 greatest pest of all. 



The house mouse reached New England soon after its settle- 

 ment, and the black rat had become well established here early 

 in the eighteenth century. From that time until long after 

 the American Revolution it was the common house rat of 

 America; but the arrival of the cannibal brown rat, in the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century, doomed the black rat to ex- 

 tirpation. Here, as in Europe, the latter was driven out by 

 the former, and now the black rat is found only in small num- 

 bers, and in regions remote from coasts and large cities. Black 

 rats were common about 1870 in towns of central Worcester 

 County, Massachusetts, where now they have been extinct for 

 years, but there are still a few left in some interior towns. 



No one positively knows the native country of the brown 

 rat. Probably it did not originate in Norway, Persia or India, 

 as some writers have asserted, and it seems to have been un- 

 known to early Europeans. It is said to be practically unknown 

 in Persia, and is found in India mainly near the coast and on 

 the navigable rivers. The black rat is far more widely dis- 

 tributed in India than the brown rat. The latter probably is 

 of Asiatic origin, and is said to have reached England from 

 some eastern port about 1728, shortly after it had cros.sed the 

 Russian frontier from Asia.^ 



RAT HABITS. 



The first step toward effective destruction of rats is a study 

 of their habits and food. Rats appear to be naturally noc- 

 turnal, as they move about readily in the dark, feeling and 

 smelling their way along walls and into holes and passages. 

 Their ears, noses, "whiskers" (vibrisscB) and feet are very sen- 



1 The Field (London, Sept. 20, 1913, p. 666) records the weight of several much larger specimens, 

 as follows: one, 1 pound 13 ounces; one, 1 pound 15 ounces; two, 2 pounds each; one, 2 pounds 

 8 ounces; and one, 2 pounds 12 ounces. No measurements are given. The English climate must 

 be extremely favorable to the development of the brown rat. 



2 Lantz, David E., U. S. Dept. Agr., Biol. Surv. Bull. 33, 1909, pp. 11-13. 



