rats' nests. 
41 
the helpless flight of cats, rats, ferret, and guinea-pigs to the 
ceiling and back again, the cage appears crammed with fluff 
and feathers ; and it is a question whether the great earth- 
quake at Lisbon caused a more instantaneous consternation 
than does his bobtailed majesty in the Happy Family, 
when seized with his periodical propensity for polking. 
CHAPTEE Y. 
, RA.TS' NESTS, AND THE MATERIALS FOR BUILDING THEM. 
The female rats about the water-side, or in the fields, &c., 
select a secluded place where the male rats are not likely to 
find them, and there build their nests with soft dried grass, 
leaves, wool, or anything else that chance may throw in 
their way, and which may tend to make it soft and comfort- 
able. Here they give birth to a naked blind family, which 
they watch and attend to with all the fondness of the most 
kind and affectionate of parents. But the rats about farm- 
houses and towns seem to spurn such simple rusticities ; 
since, for the most part, their nests must be built with 
silken, linen, woollen, or cotton fabrics, and lined with 
paper, feathers, or furs. They are not very particular ; for 
anything will suit them, from a lady's cambric nightcap, 
silk stocking, Bloomers, Brussels lace, or sable tippet, down 
to the coarsest brown paper or dried monkey's skin. 
Among the furtive propensities of rats for obtaining their 
building materials, I give the following instances : — 
A gentleman I knew, and his domestics were continually 
missing various small articles of both male and female 
wearing-apparel, such as socks or stockings from their 
bedsides, which they had pulled off only the night before, 
and also cambric collars, neckties, silk handkerchiefs, or 
napkins ; in fact, any small article which was easy of con- 
veyance. These continual losses of course led to numerous- 
suspicions, which of necessity must have been the cause 
of many nights and days of uneasiness to the whole house- 
hold ; for, in a large miscellaneous business, where ali- 
articles of merchandise are constantly exposed, and where 
