2 
THE RAT. 
living mass within (a thing by no means uncommon), we 
shall not see one ; or if we dive into a cellar that may be 
perfectly infested, the result is the same ; unless, perchance, 
a stray one may scud across for a more safe retreat. Hence 
it is that men seldom think of rats, because they rarely see 
them ; ■ but if rats could by any means be made to live on 
the surface of the earth instead of in holes and corners, and 
feed and run about the streets and fields in the open day, 
like dogs and sheep, the whole nation would be horror- 
stricken ; and ultimately there would not be a man, woman, 
or child but would have a dog, stick, or gun to effect their 
destruction, wherever they met with them. Are we to 
suppose then, because they carry on their ravages in the 
dark, that they are less destructive ? Certainly not. My 
object then, in making this appeal to my fellow-countrymen, 
and supplying them with the following History of the Rat 
(as deduced from the most experienced individuals and 
naturalists, and interspersed with a host of published and 
unpublished facts), is for the purpose of rousing them up to 
one universal warfare against these enemies of mankind, 
which by their voracious habits contribute to the im- 
poverishing of our farmers and the privation of our fellow- 
creatures. 
In doing this, however, let me be distinctly understood 
to have in view those rats only that are living and feeding 
in barns, granaries, ricks, mills, cornfields, warehouses, &c. ; 
in a word, wherever human sustenance is deposited, either 
on sea or land. Such are their omnivorous, gregarious, and 
migratory habits, that the whole of Europe, and every 
temperate region of the known world, are equally infested 
by them ; for when their food runs short, they migrate by 
hundreds in a drove to some neighbouring barn, granary, 
rick, or other place, where food is to be found. There will 
they resort, and scarce anything is proof against them. 
Here I may observe that neither bricks, lead, zinc, nor the 
corners or edges of stone are proof against their teeth and 
claws. If you examine the holes that they have drilled in 
your walls, &c., you will find, in most cases, that portions of 
the bricks or stone on every side are gone, — the space the 
mortar occupied not being sufficient to admit their bodies. 
Mr. Waterton tells us, that when the partitionings of his 
