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The mongoose lives in the field, and does not venture in the 
open, but the rat is everywhere, especially in the field, in the 
dwelling house, in the poultry house, working at night, steal- 
thy, cunning and audacious. 
The scarcity of bird life is charged against the mongoose, 
yet those birds which build in trees are equally scarce with 
ground birds. We have found nests of rats in nests built by 
nightingales and blackbirds. Adding insult to injury, the rats, 
having eaten the eggs or young, occupy the nest themselves. 
The outcry against the mongoose is foolish, is unthinking, is 
hysterical. 
The rat breeds three or four times a year, producing from 
six to twelve young, which breed again when they are four 
months old. 
Rats are hard to trap, and are suspicious of poisoned baits. 
Every householder in Jamaica should wage continual wax 
against rats by keeping cats, setting traps, using Rat Virus, 
and laying suitable poisons in a suitable way for safety to 
domestic animals. The out-of-sight trap is the most effective ; 
but it is necessary to oil the hands with coconut oil when hand- 
ling it regularly, otherwise rats get wary even of it. The ordi- 
nary iron traps should also be used, two different kinds, and 
whenever rats do not go into one kind use the other trap for 
awhile, and change the kind of bait. The only safe way of lay- 
ing poison outside is to use a double bamboo joint — that is 
with the joint in the middle open at both ends, a bait is placed 
in each end, and so dogs, cats or poultry cannot get at it. A 
different kind of bait should be used every week — that is im- 
portant. Roasted saltfish, or end of bacon, toasted rind' of cheese 
form the best baits, but ripe bananas and a crust of. bread often 
do as well. 
Poisoning. — Barium Carbonate. — One of the cheapest and 
most effective poisons for rats and mice is barium carbonate, 
or barytes. This mineral has the advantage of being without 
taste or smell, and, in the small quantities used in poisoning 
rats and mice, is harmless to larger animals. Its action on 
rodents is slow but reasonably sure, and has the further advan- 
tage that the animal, before dying, if exit be possible, usually 
leaves the premises in search of water. Its employment in 
houses, therefore, is rarely followed by the annoying odour 
which attends the use of the more virulent poisons.' 
The poison may be fed in the form of a dough made of one- 
fifth barytes and four-fifths meal, but a more convenient bait is 
ordinary oatmeal, with one-eighth of its bulk of borytes, mixed 
with water in a stiff dougth ; or the barytes may be spread 
upon bread and butter or moistened toast. The prepared bait 
should be placed in rat runs, a small quantity at a time. Else- 
where strychnine may be employed with great success. Dry 
strychnine crystals may be inserted in small pieces of raw 
