The Rat; Its History & Destructive Character. James Rodwell
Читать онлайн книгу.
and in the present instance is my principal informant. At the time I write he has above a hundred white rats, besides others. He has crossed the breed with the brown and black rat; and has produced a vast number of both brown and white, and black and white piebald young ones, which are pretty little creatures, and as tame as kittens. He says, “they breed six times in the year; and when the young are two weeks old, the mother is again pregnant. The young ones will breed at four months old.” He mentioned one female which bred so fast that she died from sheer exhaustion. But the natural powers of the rat for breeding are so great, that I believe few animals, if any, in the creation can equal them. He also informs me that these animals are subject to no diseases, except when kept in a dirty cage for any length of time; and then, like ferrets, they are subject to a kind of mange; but cleanliness and good diet will soon cure them. The most he has had in a litter were thirteen, and not a dark hair among them.
Now this does not favour the general opinion of naturalists, or of Mr. Richardson, as to the albino or white rat being an accidental variation from the brown or black rat, because it is a well-known fact to all breeders, either of beasts or birds, that any young one, which may accidentally vary in colour from the rest, will in breeding-time revert to the original stock. So far from doing this, the albino, or white rat, will breed for generations together without varying in colour. Consequently I am led to believe that they are a bonâ fide species; but this I will most humbly leave in the hands of profound naturalists to investigate and decide.
The Brown Rat (Mus decumanus, Linnæus).
We now come to the common Brown rat, or, as Buffon and Cuvier style it, the surmulot. To me it is of little import by what name they call it. This is the animal against whose ravages the present work is directed. Its natural characteristics are so well known that a description seems almost superfluous. Nevertheless, for the greater completion of my work, I will give its colour, parts, and proportions, as described by Linnæus.
The brown rat is the largest species of the genus that occurs with us. Its body is rather elongated and full, the limbs short and moderately strong, the neck short, the head of moderate size, compressed, and rather pointed; the ears are short and round, the tail long, tapering to a point, and covered with 200 rows of scales. On the fore feet are four toes, of which the two middle are much the longest; the soles are bare, and have five prominent papillæ. The hind feet have five toes, of which the three middle are the longest, and nearly equal, the first shorter than the fifth; the sole is bare up to the heel, and has six papillæ. The general colour of the upper parts is reddish brown; the long hairs are black at the end, the lower parts greyish white. On the feet the hairs are very short, whitish, and glistening; the claws are horn-coloured, or greyish yellow. The oesophagus is four inches long; the stomach transversely oblong, 2 1/2 inches in length; the intestine slender, about 2 1/2 twelfths in diameter for four feet three inches; it then enters a large curved sack formed by the head of the colon, which projects two inches, with a diameter of nine-twelfths; from thence to the extremity the intestine measures ten inches; its diameter at first seven-twelfths, but gradually diminishing to four-twelfths. The liver is divided into six lobes, and there is no gall-bladder. In the female there are six pectoral and six inguino-ventral mammæ.
Besides the black and brown, Baron Cuvier gives accounts of seventy-two different kinds of rats, each of which has its native locality, and which it seldom or never quits, except by force or accident. But the black and brown rats are citizens of every genial portion of the globe, and seem to say the world is theirs, for they go where they like, and do as they please. Now it may be asked from whence came they? Ay, there’s the rub; for I know of no animals, in the whole range of natural history, wherein there is so much discrepancy of opinion as to the land of their nativity, or such conflicting testimony adduced by the various philosophers as to which country has the honour of claiming these little truants as its legitimate offspring.* Some naturalists believe these came from the East Indies; others believe they came from the West. Many assert they came from Norway, while others maintain that they were common in England before the Norwegians even heard of them.
It may surprise those who are sticklers for the Scandinavian origin, to know that this rat was brought to England from the Indies and Persia in 1730; that in 1750 the breed made its way to France, and its progress over Europe has since then been more or less rapid; and that when Pallas was travelling in Southern Russia he saw the first detachment arrive, near the mouth of the Volga, in 1766.
Some respectable authorities state that the brown rat came from Persia and the southern regions of Asia, and that the fact is rendered sufficiently evident from the testimonies of Pallas and F. Cuvier. Pallas describes the migratory nature of these rats, and states that in the autumn of 1729 they arrived at Astrachan, in Russia, in such incredible numbers that nothing could be done to oppose them. They came from the western deserts, and even the waves of the Volga did not arrest their progress.
It is said by others that their first arrival was on the coast of Ireland, in those ships that used to trade in provisions to Gibraltar, and that perhaps we owe to a single couple of these animals the numerous progeny now infesting the whole extent of the British empire. Mr. Newman asserts that we received the rat from Hanover, whence it was called the Hanoverian rat. Mr. Waterton states that his father, who was a naturalist, always maintained that they came to us in the very ship which brought George I. to England, and that they were seen swimming in a shoal from the ship to the shore. Pennant says that the brown rat arrived in England about 1728, and in Paris twenty years later; but a modern writer asserts that they appeared in France in the middle of the sixteenth century, and were first observed in Paris. Buffon says that it is uncertain from whence they came, though it was only ten years before, that they arrived in France, and this I believe to be about the true state of the case; though the Egyptians maintain that they were made out of the mud of the Nile, and assert that they have seen them in the process of formation, being half rat, half mud.
After all, it matters little from whence rats came. Here they are; and how to get rid of them will form the subject of the following pages.
* The common Water Vole is the Arvicola of Cuvier, who divides the genius into four species: the Water Vole (Mus amphibius, Linnæus); the Alsacian Vole (Mus terrestris); the Meadow Vole (Mus arvalis); and the Economic Vole (Mus œconomicus).
* Cuvier says that this animal did not pass into Europe till the eighteenth century. He further observes that it appears to belong to Persia, where it lives in burrows, and that it was not till 1727 that, after an earthquake, it arrived at Astrachan, by crossing the Volga.
CHAPTER II.
THE UNREASONABLE FEAR OF RATS.
I KNOW of no one thing so universally detested, or so unjustly charged with everything that is foul, treacherous, and disgusting, as the rat. I say unjustly, because whatever it does, like every other animal, it is only following the bent of its nature. But, at the same time, I believe a vast amount of the disgust exhibited at the bare mention of its name to be mere affectation. The most striking instance I ever met with took place one evening in London, where a friend of mine supped, or rather was to have supped, with a party by invitation, the good lady having invited her friends, in the temporary absence of her husband. I here give his own account.
The party met, and as he was the only stranger present, of course the formality of introducing him to each was indispensable. This ceremony being concluded, the supper was served up. There were roast ducks, fowls roast and boiled, plovers, curried rabbits, ham, lamb, &c., with vegetables of all kinds, and soups and sauces in profusion. They were all seated round the table in pairs,