DIETETICS OF RATS. 
49 
inunclimg the white root of the buh^ush, of which it is par- 
ticularly fond, and holding it up in its paws, squirrel-fashion, 
seems to enjoy its evening repast as much as an alderman 
does his whitebait dinner, if that were possible. 
The same writer furthermore states that the Noi'way rat, 
in the summer months, frequents the water, and will attack 
a large fish in shoal water, and soon master it. Besides, he 
has known them come out ot their holes, and carry away six 
or seven fine perch, which had been caught and left by the 
pool side, with the greatest ease : — 
" Some time ago my son had just returned from a daj^-'s 
angling at HanwelL The fish lay sparkling on a dish for my 
approbation. He had caught ten, but he informs me that 
the first three he caught were by far the finest ; and in order 
to have them safe, he threv*^ them on to the grass some few 
yards behind where he stood ; then, after standing for some 
time quietly watching his float, he casually turned his head, 
and there were two large rats running away with two of his 
fish. He directly dropped his rod and pursued them, but 
they reached the water before him, and dashed in, taking the 
fish with them, and instantly disappeared. He supposes 
that one rat first found them, and taking away a fish to his 
hole, brought his companion to help him with the other two, 
and so the three finest fish were lost." 
A gentleman was walking alongside a millstream near 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and noticed a common house-rat 
making its way close by the edge of the water, among the 
coarse stones that form the embankment. Curious to 
know what it could be doing there, he watched its pro- 
gress downwards, until it reached the outlet of a drain. It 
had scarcely turned into the drain when it made a sudden 
plunge into the water, and almost as quickly reappeared in 
the stream with a middle-sized eel in its mouth. It made for 
the edge, where it regained its footing, and this, from the 
steepness of the bank, was a matter of great difficulty, which 
was much increased by the struggles of the eel to get free. 
Eels at any time, as every angler knows, are troublesome 
gentry, and very hard to manage ; consequently would re- 
quire all the ingenuity of a rat to cast a knot on one's tail. 
But when the rat attempted to get forward, and turn a corner 
where there was a broader ledge, the desperate efforts of 
