452 
YERTEBKATA. 
Having thus found out the thief, the saddler determined to catch him. He accordingly propped 
up a sieve with a stick, and put a bait underneath ; in a few minutes out came the rat again, 
smelling the inviting toasted cheese, and forthwith attacked it. The moment he began nibbling 
at the bait, down came the sieve, and he became a prisoner. 'Now,' thought he, 'my life depends 
upon my behavior when this horrid sieve is lifted up by that two-legged wretch with the apron 
on, who so kindly cuts the greasy thongs for me every day; he has a good-natured looking face, 
and I don't think he wants to kill me. I know what I will do.' 
"The whipmaker at length lifted up the sieve, being armed with a stick ready to kill Mr. Rat 
when he rushed out. What was his astonishment to see that the rat remained perfectly quiet, 
and, after a few moments, walk quietly up on his arm, and look up in his face, as much as to say, 
'I am a poor innocent rat, and if your wife ivill lock up all the good things in the cupboard, why 
I must eat your nicely-prepared thongs; rats must live as well as w^hipmakers.' The man then 
said, 'Tom, I was going to kill you, but now I won't; let us be friends. I'll put you some bread 
and butter every day if you will not take my thongs and wax, and leave the shopman's breakfast 
alone; and — ^but I am afraid you will come out once too often; there are lots of dogs and cats 
about who won't be so kind to you as I am ; you may go now.' 
"He then put him down, and Mr. Rat leisurely retreated to his hole. For a long time after- 
ward he found his breakfast regularly placed for him at the mouth of his hole, in return for which 
he, as in duty bound, became quite tame, running about the shop, and inquisitively turning over 
every thing on the bench at which his protector was at work. He would even accompany him 
into the stables when he went to feed the pony, and pick up the corn as it fell from the manger, 
keeping, however, a respectable distance from the pony's legs. His chief delight was to bask in 
the warm window-sill, stretching his full length to the midday sun. This unfortunate though lux- 
urious habit proved his destruction, for one very hot day, as he lay at his ease taking his siesta, 
the dog belonging to the bird-shop opposite espied him afar off, and instantly dashed at him 
through the window. The poor rat, who was asleep at the time, awoke, alas ! too late to save 
his life. The cruel dog caught him, and took him into the road, where a few sharp squeezes and 
shakings soon finished him. The fatal deed being done, the murderous dog left his bleeding vic- 
tim in the dusty road, and with ears and tail erect, walked away as though proud of his perform- 
ance. The dog's master, knowing the history of the rat, had him stuffed, and his impaled skin, 
with a silver chain round the neck, forms to this day a handsome addition to the shop-front of 
the bird-shop in Brompton." 
A report was published some months ago, in the Gazette des Tribunaux, of Paris, of a trial 
which had taken place there between a gentleman and a Zouave who had served in Africa, the 
latter having sold the former a new species of animal which he called the Trumpet Rat : that is, 
a rat with a trunk or proboscis, nearly an inch long, upon his nose. The suit was for damages, on 
the ground that the plaintiff was imposed upon, inasmuch as this specimen was produced by arti- 
ficial means. The case, as giren by the author we have so liberally quoted, was as follows : 
"The Plaintiff — 'Gentlemen, this individual has cheated me out of a hundred francs, and has, 
at the same time, willfully abused my confidence. He knows that I am much interested in geol- 
ogy, antiquities, natural sciences. I have collections of fossils, of medals, of shells,, of rare ani- 
mals, of curious plants. One day he called upon me and said, "Sir, I have a kind of animal which 
has never been mentioned by any naturalist." "What is it, sir?" "It is 'the Trumpet Hat.''" 
"What do you call the trumpet-rat?" "Sir, as the name indicates, it is a rat which has a trum- 
pet." "Where is it?" "On his nose, like a rhinoceros." "And you have it alive?" "Alive 
and well ; if you wish to see it, you have only to come to my house." "Directly; come along." 
"'I was very anxious to see this strange animal. We arrive at his house, and he shows me in 
a cage an enormous rat, very lively and in good condition, and which really had on its nose a 
sort of slender excrescence about two centimetres long — two-thirds of an inch — covered with hair 
like the body of the animal, with vertebrae in it, and, a most extraordinary thing, larger at the 
summit than at the base, the contrary to what it ought to be in the usual course of things. I 
ask to examine this phenomenon ; he puts it in my hand, and holds its paws and head that I 
might examine at my ease this extraordinary trumpet. I ask him if it was not a cheat, and a 
