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VEHTEBRATA. 
upon and slain by his fellow-prisoners. They had not only slain him, but had actually begun to 
eat him, choosing the head to begin upon. Wishing to see the result, I left him, and in the 
course of the day, although well supplied with bread and milk, these cannibals had nearly de- 
voured their friend. I have preserved the bones as proof of the fact. I afterward ascertained 
that it was one only of these rats that was murderously inclined, for he killed and ate every rat 
put in to him. In the course of about a month, this brute killed five rats that were put into his 
cage. He always began at the neck, just behind the ear. A gentleman at Clapham, to whom I 
gave some rats, had bred a number in a squirrel's cage, which was hung up in a garden. One 
morning, not long ago, he looked at the rat in it — a white female Avith young. Instead of the 
white rat, he found a great brown male of the common kind coiled up in the nest. The white one 
was gone, and the young ones all killed and partly devoured. This brown rat must have climbed 
up a perpendicular smooth iron bar to get at the cage. Out of the hole in the cage, where the 
intruder got in, the white mother might have got out if she liked, but she preferred staying at 
home and looking after her young ones. 
"I was witness to the following circumstance: a dog had been killing some rats for a match, 
and one wounded rat was left alive in the rat-pit. Twenty other rats were then placed in for 
another dog. These fresh comers found out the wounded one, and instantly, though there were 
many people looking on, set upon him and killed him then and there. One of the rats seemed 
to take the part of the wounded one, but a gigantic rat left the wounded one he was murdering 
and attacked the would-be rescuer and killed him also. This seems a wise provision, though, at 
first sight, a cruel one. If a wounded rat got into a hole, he would linger there perhaps many 
days in a dying state. His fellow-rats, however, soon find him out and put him out of his misery. 
At the same time it is a salutary check upon their increase, for a colony of rats has thus in itself 
the elements of self-destruction. Were all to live, there would not be sufficient food for their ex- 
istence ; some must die, and those are killed who are disabled from foraging for themselves. In 
this way, too, one poisoned rat often kills more; his neighbors eat his body, and with it the poi- 
son. But it appears that the rats have found out what poison is, for a gentleman with whom I 
was conversing on the subject informed me that he knew a case where poison having been placed 
down for rats, a pair of old ones drove their young away from it, and filled up the holes where it 
was placed, so that they should not get at it." 
The following sketches will be found interesting : "There are two exhibitions of 'Happy Families' 
in London; one stands at Charing Cross and about the streets, the other remains permanently at 
Waterloo Bridge, They both claim to be the original 'happy family,' but I think the man at the 
bridge has the greatest claims to originality. He is the successor to the man who first started 
the idea, thirty-six years ago — Austin by name ; the present owner has exhibited eight years, and 
always in the same place. Both of these men told me that black rats were very scarce things 
indeed ; one of them had to give half a crown for a single one. He afterward got another, but 
finding they would not breed in captivity, he turned them out under the floor of his room, to give 
them a better chance of breeding; the result of the experiment he promised to let me know. 
"I have been informed that a gentleman who v/as in the habit of crossing London Bridge early 
in the morning some years ago, frequently saw whole colonies of black rats out on the mud banks 
by the river side at low-water ; lately, however, they have all disappeared, killed, most probably, 
by the increasing numbers of the Norway rats from the large granaries and store-houses that have 
sprung up near the bridge. 
"An intelligent rat-catcher informs mo that the present head-quarters of the old English black 
rat is the Isle of Dogs — in the Thames, below London — that they abound there in the numerous 
ditches, and come out to feed upon Avhat is left by the tide. In his opinion these black rats 
are not aboriginal in England, but came over originally from Jersey in ships. They thrive, 
he tells me, in marshy places, particularly where the water is brackish, and there are many such 
places in Jersey. I have not yet had an opportunity of verifying his assertion. My iriend Mr. 
Coulson, of Clifton, Bristol, most kindly sent me up five beautiful young black rats from Bristol ; 
they were in a large iron cage, and when excited movQd about the cage more like birds than rats. 
I never yet saw other creatures with four legs so active as they ; their tails are remarkably long. 
