IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 13 
who emigrate to the West in our country. But they stayed and 
made their homes there, nevertheless. 
Rats are made useful in other ways besides as hunters. In 
China they are eaten, and in Paris their skins are made into gloves. 
In London they are a source of amusement, as well as profit. In 
that city and other large towns in England, there are professional 
rat-catchers — men who make it their business to go from house to 
house and clear out the rats. As a sign of their business, they 
wear a brass image of a rat, and they charge a certain sum for 
every one they catch. How they do it is a professional secret, for 
they don't kill them, but carry them off in bags to sell. 
You don't know who would buy live rats ; but that's because 
you never went to a rat-pit (and never will, I hope). The rat-pit is 
always in a low neighborhood, and is nothing but a sort of hole 
where rats are let loose and dogs sent in to kill them. Strange as 
it seems, crowds of low men and boys find pleasure in seeing the 
cruel sport, and are willing to pay for it. So the rat-catcher sells 
his animals by the dozen to the owners of the pits. 
Rats have been trained to entertain an audience in another 
way. A troop of them was exhibited, a few years ago, in Europe, 
dressed like men and women, who walked on their hind legs, and 
went through a sort of play, one act of which was to hang a cat 
and dance round the body. 
N. B. — The cat was a stuffed one. 
These brown babies have white cousins called Albino rats. 
They have snowy white coats, and pink eyes. They are as lively 
as squirrels, and are kept as pets, whenever they are caught. They 
are extremely neat about their personal appearance, spending most 
of their time in cleaning their fur and washing their face. 
They also have other brown cousins that live in California and. 
build houses for themselves. Rats are always fond of society, you 
know, and these California fellows build regular villages. They 
select a nice place where trees are thick, and make a hut four or 
five feet high, shaped like an Indian hut. 
Each house has five or six doors near the ground, besides 
numerous halls and passages leading away under ground. They 
are built sometimes of sticks and chips, and sometimes of bones. 
