PREDATORY HABITS OF THE RAT. 
75 
morning after morning I threw out tlie ghastly remains of 
numerous dead rabbits ; when at the expiration of about 
three weeks there were only five ill-looking old ones re- 
maining, and they were so ragged and bitten, that they were 
disposed of immediately. It turned out that the rabbits, in 
burrowing, had got so near to the drain or sewer, that the 
rats smelt them, and soon set to work and broke through, 
and hence the entire destruction of my warren. 
Still I had a consolation left, and that was my pigeons. 
They of course must be safe, because their house was nailed 
as high up against the wall as the place would admit of, and 
I had been advised also to get a guinea-pig, as it would have 
the effect of frightening the rats away. This I did, and 
paid a shilling for a very fine one. But alas 1 poor guinea- 
pig and pigeons ! On entering the cellar the following morn- 
ing, there they were, all dead. The rats had clambered up 
some loose boards that were placed against the wall, and 
thence to the pigeon-house ; and there were the mangled 
remains of the tenants lying about in all directions, while some 
were entirely devoured except the feathers. But what grieved 
me more than all was the death of a beautiful dragon-hen, 
that was sitting on four eggs, two of which were her own, 
and the other two a present from a gentleman ; and to me 
of very great value, because they were the produce of a 
valuable pair of almond tumblers, for which the gentleman 
paid five and twenty guineas. But on the very morning 
that these eggs were to have been hatched, the rats ate 
them up ; and as for the poor guinea-pig, not seeing him, I 
imagined he was chasing the rats through the drains and 
sewers ; but, on moving the boards that had formed a ladder 
for the murderers, there lay poor master guinea-pig without 
his head ! Here then was an end to my live-stock. 
Now I will leave the reader to judge how far I am in- 
debted to rats. The loss of my live-stock in early life fully 
convinced me of the rapacious and omnivorous character of 
the rat. From that day to the present my eyes have ever 
been upon them ; and everything I have read, seen, or heard 
in the interim (a period of thirty years), has convinced me 
more and more as to the bane the}'' are to individual 
and national prosperity. Consequently, after a fair and 
dispassionate consideration of the subject, I came to the 
