CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 7. RODENTIA. 
451 
lar. She soon returned, and gasping for breath, rushed into the room exclaiming — "Tis all gone, 
ma'am ;' and sure enough it was all gone. 'The ghost has taken it !' Not a drop was left, only 
the empty cask remained, the side was half eaten away, and marks of sharp teeth were visible 
round the rugged margins of the newly made bung-hole. 
"This discovery fully accounted for the noise the ghost had made, which caused so much alarm. 
The aboriginal rats in the dame's cellar had found out the wine, and communicated the joyful 
news to all the other rats in the parish ; they had assembled there to enjoy the fun, and get very 
tipsy — which, judging from the noise they made, they certainly did — on this treasured cask of 
wine. Being quite a family party they had finished it in two nights, and having got all they 
could, like wise rats they returned to their respective homes, perfectly nnconscious that their 
merry-making had nearly been the death of the rightful owner and 'founder of the feast.' They 
had first gnawed out the cork, and got as much out as they could ; they soon found that the more 
they drank the lower the wine became. Perseverance is the motto of the rat, so they set to work 
and ate away the wood to the level of the Avine again. This they continued till they had emp- 
tied the cask; they must then have got into it and licked up the last drains, for another and less 
agreeable smell was substituted for that of wine. I may add, that this cask, with the side gone 
and the marks of the rats' teeth, is still in my possession." 
As evidence that rats may be tamed, we have the following : " A gentleman traveling through 
Mecklenburg about forty years ago, was witness to a very singular circumstance in the post-house 
at New Hargard. After dinner, the landlord placed on the floor a large dish of soup, and gave 
a loud whistle. Lnmediately there came into the room a mastifi", a fine Angora cat, an old raven, 
and a remarkably large rat, with a bell about its neck. They all four went to the dish, and with- 
out disturbing each other, fed together, after which the dog, cat, and rat lay before the fire, while 
the raven hopped about the room. The landlord, after accounting for the familiarity which ex- 
isted among these animals, informed his guest that the rat was the most useful of the four, for the 
noise he made had completely freed the house from the other rats and mice with which it had 
previously been infested. 
"When carrying on my observations on rats, I bought a pair of piebalds, and put them in a 
Ward's case, which formed a capital cage for them. Li the course of a few weeks my colony in- 
creased to an enormous extent: I had specimens of almost every kind of rat — the pure white 
albino rat with pink eyes, the common brown rat, the true black rat, and the snake or ship-rat. 
I had to pay several shillings for my black rat, but he was a fine beast. By taking trouble I ob- 
tained some very remarkable crosses: I had one litter half albino half black — the white the color 
of snow, the black the color of coal. Their physiognomy, too, was very peculiar, and a rat from 
this lot might readily have been taken for a new species ; they were really very pretty creatures. 
I could never obtain a cross between a black and a brown rat, except through, the medium of a 
hybrid in whom the blood of the black breed existed. Of the cross between the brown and white 
rat I had many live specimens, so many, indeed, that periodically I took a bagful to the Zoologi- 
cal Gardens, for the benefit of the snakes. All my rats knew me well. The moment I came to 
the room they swarmed round the door of the cage, and I was obliged to keep them back while 
I put in their food, as a huntsman does his hounds. At feeding-time there was not a single 
rat in the cage that I could not take up and handle with impunity ; they never ofi"ered to bite 
me. If, hoAvever, a stranger tried to touch them, they were all up on their hind-legs in a fighting 
attitude in a moment. 
" Talking of tame rats, I knew a worthy whipmaker who worked hard at his trade to support 
a large family. He had prepared a number of strips of leather, by well oiling and greasing them. 
He carefully laid them by in a box, but strange to say, they disappeared one by one; nobody 
knew any thing about them, nobody had touched them. 
" However, one day as he was sitting at work in his shop, a large black rat, of the original 
British species, slyly poked his head up out of a hole in the corner of the room, and deliberately 
took a survey of the whole place. Seeing all quiet, out he came, and ran straight to the box 
wherein were kept the favorite leather strips. In he dived, and quickly reappeared, carrying in 
his mouth the most dainty morsel he could find. Off he ran to his hole, and quickly vanished. 
