DIETETICS OF RATS. 
59 
incompreliensible to him about the matter. He could under- 
stand how a cork or bung might be eaten through by rats or 
mice, but how they could manage to get at the contents was 
a mystery, the hole being too small to admit the head of 
either of these animals. Determined to ascertain who the 
'delinquents were, and the means used by them to effect 
their purpose, he secreted himself one night in a corner of 
the room, and soon a fine glossy rat made its appearance ; 
approached the box with a fortitude unknown to rational 
depredators on a similar eri^and, poked his tail into one of 
the bottles, then drew it gently forth and licked it clean, 
and so repeated the process over and over again till he had 
had his fill. 
At a place in the neighbourhood of Manchester, where a 
station has been abandoned and the old wooden hut removed, 
a gentleman lately saw an ingenious and novel theft com- 
mitted, and allowed it to be completed without molesting 
the robber. He happened to be standing quietly by, when 
he saw a fine sleek rat come from beneath the old station 
oflice, and walking deliberately up to a carriage that was 
standing off the line, clambered up a spoke in one of the 
wheels to the box wherein the grease was kept ; and, as if 
regularly trained to the office, v/ith one of his fore-paws he 
raised the spring-lid, and there held it while he looked 
round to see if any enemy was at hand ; then, seeming 
satisfied that all was safe, he forthwith plunged his nose 
and whiskers into the grease, which we believe is composed 
of palm-oil and tallow, and which he seemed to eat with 
as much relish as an alderman would the green fat of a 
turtle. But from time to time he drev/ out his head to see 
that all was right, still holding up the spring-lid with his 
paw, and as he felt satisfied that all was secure, he again 
plunged into the grease, and so on till he had had his fill ; 
after which he let fall the lid, and quietly and steadily 
returned to his abode. This rat, I think, showed as much 
cunning and sagacity as the rats that put their tails into the 
oil- flasks ; but still it is a matter that will admit of dis- 
cussion. 
I have seen and nursed the wonderful little dog Tiny,whic]i, 
for its size, was the greatest rat-killer the world ever pro- 
duced ; at least, we have no records of any dog coming near 
