The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1899-03-21

occasion is made one of festive celebra
ton. tens of thousands of the fierce ro-
dents being destroyed. Even such whole
sale work. however. is of only temporary
benefit the places Of the animals Killed
being soon taken by others. female
gray rat is ready to reproduce her KIND
at fourteen weeks of age, and she Is IN
an interesting condition three times a
year on an average, giving birth 10 from
thirteen TO fifteen young ones a a litter.
Thus it will ne seen that, even were only
a few of these vermin left in the world,
they would soon repopulate it with their
kind. 1t is said that ten rats viii eat as
much per day as one man, but there are
no reliable figures on the subject
The gray rats particularly are born
travellers. Every ship, as II leaves pert,
takes its complement of rats as regularly
as of passengers and sailors. Many
hOary old wandeTer has circumnavisdte1
the globe more times than Capt. Cook.
Sometimes while on shipboard they are
put to great straits to get water TO drink,
and it is supposed that it is sometimes on
this account that they abandon vessels
a course of procedure on their part which
excites the superstitious alarm Of seafar-
ing men Wherever rats have secured a
foothold on bird-breeding islands, the ex-
termination of the birds surely follows,
both eggs and nestlings being taken by
the rodents. In London the hunting Of
rats in the sewers is a regular business,
practiced for the purpose of procuring the
animals for sport-that is to say, for rat
batting by terriers in pits
Rats have often been known 10 attack
and eat corpses in dissecting rooms. and
a case is on record where a medical stu
dent was frightened very badly by enc
of these animals while he was engaged at
night in the study Of cadaver. scdlpel in
hand. He heard a noise, and looking 10
see what was the cause of 1t, saw hui
man skull approaching him along the
floor AS il came, there issued from II a
peculiar squeak squeak. Naturally, under
such circumstances, the young man was
extremely alarmed, imagining tina; the
phenomenon must be supernatural tie
tainted. indeed, and il was not until att
erward that it was discovered thai the
cause Of the trouble was "a large gray rat
which had found its way into The skull
and could not get out again.
We have about twenty species or rats
that are native 10 this country, but not
one of them lives in houses they do not
foreign species. Our wild rats live In the
woods and deserts, and commonly they
build over their nests great piles Of rub
bish for a protection against predatory
animals Sometimes they gather heaps OF
stones for this purpose. The brown-footed
wood rats of California erect stacks OF
brush and sticks as much as six feet high,
sometimes in trees, but usually on the
ground Some of our rats live In caves
in the faces Of the cliffs. covering the
floors with thorny shrubs and cactus
needles for a protection against preda-
ceous animals. In Pennsylvania one ma
tive American rat is found that - as Big
as the largest sewer rat; il is the nearest
surviving relative OF fossil rat that in
habited caves In America perhaps one
hundred thousand years ago In the Hud-
son Bay region occur rats that have
bushy tails Ike squirrels. They are known
as pack" rats. because they steal or
! pack on with everything they can get
hold Of They will steal knives. forks.
spOons-anything in fact that il bright
and pOrtable-carrying the stolen articles
10 their nests to play with.