208 Vermin of the TarvA. 
biscuits should be used as food for rats, I threw a hammer at them, arid 
picked up the biscuit. 
“ I think the conduct of these animals showed a wonderful amount of 
intelligence ; it was evident that the first rat saw that, to get the biscuit 
through the bars, it was necessary that it should be on its edge, and, not being 
able to tip it and pull at the same time, he gained the assistance of a friend. 
“ The short space of time during which he was absent, and the concerted 
action, show also that they must have some wonderfully facile means of 
communicating ideas.” ^ 
In regard to the damage done by rats to fruit-trees, the 
reader may be reminded of an observation made by the late 
Edward Jesse in his very entertaining Gleanings in Natural 
History. He says : — 
“ I was lately shown a pear-tree trained against an outhouse in the 
yard of a gentleman at Hampton Court, all the upper part of which had 
been eaten away by rats. They descended from the projecting eaves of the 
building on the branches of the pear-tree, and as far as they could reach 
had fed on the leaves and tender shoots of the tree. They were frequently 
seen in the act of feeding, and the tree indeed showed evident marks of their 
depredations.” * * 
The same observer has remarked : ® — 
“ The fact of rats being able to remove eggs from one place to another 
without breaking them seems to be pretty well ascertained. I was assured 
that on one occasion they had taken them from a box in which they had 
been placed. It is not easy to guess how they contrive to do either the one 
or the other.” * 
Hats will not only prey upon other animals as big, or even 
bigger, than themselves — as, for example, rabbits ® — but will even 
kill and devour their own kind. Those caught in gins will be set 
upon by others, killed, and demolished all but the skin ; and one 
of the first things a rat does when caught in a trap by one of 
its legs is to twist and gnaw off its own leg to get free. This 
has been observed repeatedly. 
Rats will also eat snails, which they carry into their runs to 
devour at leisure, leaving the fragments of shells in testimony of 
the fact. They have even been seen to climb up the stalks of 
hollyhocks, clear off several snails at a time, bring them down 
with one paw, like an armful, and run off with them on three 
legs to a hole. On examination of the holes, the inside was 
found to be strewn for some distance with broken snail shells.® 
‘ Nature, September 10, 1881. 
First series, p. 183. 
* See further about Rats, and Rat lore, a paper in the Quarterly Review, 
by A. Wynter. Vol. 101. 1857 . — Ed. 
* Op. cit. second series, p. 281. 
5 Several instances of rats killing and eating rabbits will be found reported 
in The Field of June 29, 1872, and July 27, 1878. 
® Merrifleld, Sketeh of the Natural Hixtory of Brighton, p. 157 ; and 
Harting, Ramhles in Search of Shells, p. 73. 
