DESTRUCTIVE HABITS OF THE RAT. 
159 
week, or 1,040 in each year, in public matches ; which in the 
aggregate shows an annual destruction of 54,080 rats, 
besides those destroyed in private practice. He goes on to 
state that a dealer in live animals told him that there were 
several men who brought a few dozens, or even a single 
dozen, from the country — men who were not professional 
rat-catchers, but working in gardens or on farms, and who in 
their leisure time caught rats for the London market. 
The same gentleman further states that from the best infor- 
mation he could obtain, there were no fewer than 2,000 rats 
killed weekly in public and private trials, or 104,000 yearly ; 
that the public exhibitions are only periodical, while the pri- 
vate training of dogs in this respect goes on uninterruptedly. 
But all this is exclusive of the rats killed by the profession, 
where they are employed annually, or by the job, to destroy 
or keep the premises clear of these destructive creatures. 
It must be borne in mind that nearly the whole of these 
104,000 are genuine farm-rats, many of which are brought 
to London by various gardeners' and farmers' men and the 
remainder by a body of men who, in the garb of rat-catchers, 
prowl about the country within a few miles of town, but 
who will turn their hands to anything to earn a scanty 
subsistence. They have no fixed destination, though London 
is the grand market and centre of attraction, and thither 
they repair as often as they succeed in capturing a few rats, 
or what not, which can realize a scanty supply of money,. 
The number of these men amounts to between seventy and 
eighty, and their average earnings are about fifteen sliillings 
a week. As to the permanent rat-catchers of London, they 
amount to about twenty-five in number ; but these men could 
not live by their profession only ; consequently they mostly 
deal in dogs, ferrets, rabbits, song-birds, pigeons, &c. 
The two principal rat-destroyers of London (Mr. Shaw and 
Mr. Sabin) inform me that they destroy between 8,000 and 
9,000 each annually; that is, averaging 17,000 a year 
between them ; and it is seldom that they have much less 
than from 100 to 1,000 rats each on hand for sale. One of 
them showed me and my son between 800 and 900 of these 
creatures, all at one view, in cages ; and the other showed 
me over 2,000 at one time, and warranted every one to be 
a genuine barn-rat. It was Christmas-time, and every 
