BRITISH MAMMALS 
the traps, poison, and other devices invented for its destruction. 
Whether recent legislation making it compulsory for owners of 
property to clear their premises of these mischievous creatures, will 
prove effective or not, remains to be seen. 
The annual amount of damage caused by the consumption and spoiling 
of all kinds of food and stores by Rats is beyond calculation, apart from 
the destruction caused by their gnawing and burrowing propensities, 
which enable them to undermine the structure of houses and other 
buildings. 
In a little book entitled Rats and Mice as the Enemies of Mankind 
(2nd ed. 1920), by M. A. C. Hinton, printed by order of the Trustees of the 
British Museum, an appalling account is given of the loss annually caused in 
Great Britain by Rats, which is put as high as ^"15,000,000 by some 
authorities. 
The fleas infesting Rats are the chief cause of the spreading of plague 
and other diseases, as these insects carry the bacillus from the infected animals 
to man, so the danger to health is quite as serious as the material loss. 
Possessed of great cunning and intelligence as well as courage, the old 
and experienced Rat is seldom outwitted, but the half-grown young will 
often crowd into a trap when once one has entered. 
Though sometimes coming out in the daytime, the Rat is chiefly 
nocturnal in habits, and, as twilight approaches, may be seen leaving 
his underground retreat in search of a meal, when nothing edible escapes 
attention. 
He flourishes in large cities as well as on uninhabited islands off our 
coasts, where he subsists on shell fish or garbage thrown up by the sea. 
The female produces several litters in the year, about thirteen or fourteen 
young being born at a time, which accounts for the rapid increase of the 
animal. 
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