[Contents]CHAPTER XIIIRATS“Let us return for a moment to the rodents, the habitual prey of the night-birds. You do not know them all, by any means, but we ought not to pass them by; for if some, like the hare and the rabbit, are useful to us, still more are very destructive. You remember those two pairs of incisors, so long and sharp, that I told you about when I described the rabbit’s teeth. All rodents have similar incisors. To keep them sharp and prevent them from overlapping too much by growing too long, which would make it impossible for the animal to feed itself, the rodent must wear them down by constant friction as fast as they grow. Consequently, these terrible incisors have, so to speak, no rest; they must always be nibbling something, no matter what. Thus the harm they do us is much greater than you would suspect from the size of the animal. How much actual food does a mouse need for one meal? Very little, unquestionably. A mouse is so small that a single nut will fill its stomach. Don’t think, however, that one day’s ravages are confined to that one nut. After the nut is eaten, the animal will proceed, perhaps, to gnaw a hole in a bag, reduce a piece of cloth to tatters, chew up a[99]book, or drill a hole in a board, simply and solely to whet its teeth. And the damage caused by rats and mice in our dwelling-houses is matched by other damage caused by other rodents in the fields. You must make the acquaintance of all these destroyers.”Norway or Brown RatNorway or Brown Rat(One-third natural size)“For my part,” Jules confessed, “I shouldn’t, if I saw it, know the field-mouse that you told us about in your talk on night-birds.”“I know rats and mice such as we have in the house,” said Emile, “but that’s all.”“And yet,” rejoined his uncle, “I very much doubt whether you have any real knowledge of the rat. I will begin with it.“The common or black rat is more than twice the size of a mouse. Its coat is nearly black above, and ashy gray underneath. It lives in granaries, thatched roofs, and abandoned ruins. If it fails to[100]find a lodging to its taste, it burrows a hole for itself. It is not a native with us, but is thought to have come from Asia in the wake of the armies returning from the Crusades. To-day the common rat is seldom mentioned in our country; another foreign rodent has come in, the Norway or brown rat, which, being larger than the common rat, has waged war against it and almost wiped out the species. We have not gained by the exchange; quite the contrary, the Norway rat being a much more troublesome creature. The true rat, the black rat, is rare now, especially where the other abounds; and that is why I doubt that any one of you is familiar with it. What you call a rat is more than likely to be one of these Norwegian invaders. Don’t forget the color—black—and you will have no difficulty in recognizing the true rat.“The mouse is much more familiar to you. It has been known from the earliest times all over the world. Need I describe this little rodent, so well known for its liveliness, its wily nature, and its extreme timidity, which makes it scuttle away to its hole at the slightest alarm?”“We all know the mouse very well,” Jules assured him.“The Norway or brown rat, also known as the sewer-rat, is the largest and most troublesome of all European rats. It attains a length of nearly a foot, without counting the tail, which is scaly like the mouse’s and a little shorter than the body. The largest and strongest Norway rat can cope with a[101]cat. Its presence in Europe dates only from the middle of the eighteenth century, and it seems to have been brought from India in the hold of ships, which it commonly infests. It has now spread all over the world. Its coat is reddish brown above and ashy gray underneath.“Norway rats frequent storehouses, cellars, sewers, slaughter-houses, and dumping grounds. Everything is food to these filthy and audacious creatures, and they even dare to attack a sleeping man. In large towns they multiply so fast as to cause serious alarm. The vicinity of the slaughter-house of Montfaucon in Paris is so undermined with their innumerable burrows that the buildings there are in danger of collapsing. To preserve them from this disaster it is necessary to protect their foundation against the attacks of the rodents by means of a deep enclosing belt of broken glass bottles.”“What attracts them in such numbers to these places?” asked Jules.“The abundance of food, the dead bodies of slaughtered horses. In one night, if left in the slaughter-house yards, dead horses are devoured to the skeleton. During severe frosts if the skin is not removed in time the Norway rats get inside the body, stay there, and eat all the flesh, so that when a thaw comes and the workmen begin to skin the animal, they find inside the skin nothing but a host of rats swarming among the bare bones.”“But don’t the people there have any cats to protect them?” asked Emile.[102]“Cats! The Norway rats would eat them alive, my boy, in no time. They have something better, however—dogs, both terriers and bulldogs, that run the rats down in the sewers with astonishing cleverness and break their back with one bite. The bulldog—that’s the kind of cat you need for such mice. This hunt in the sewer, moreover, must be frequently repeated, for Norway rats multiply with frightful rapidity, and if we were not careful the town would sooner or later be endangered; the horrible creature, strong in its numbers, would devour all Paris. In December of the year 1849 two hundred and fifty thousand rats were destroyed in a few days as the result of a single hunt.“In the country the Norway rat frequents the banks of foul streams; it enters kitchens through sink-holes; it gets into hen-houses and rabbit-warrens by undermining the walls. It haunts cellars and stables, but rarely makes its way into high granaries, doubtless because of its liking for filthy drainage and any kind of offal, which can be found only on ground floors and in basements. It pounces upon eggs and young fowls, and even has the boldness to suck the blood of full-grown poultry and rabbits. When it cannot get animal food, which is its first choice, it will eat grain and vegetables of all kinds. No sort of food is rejected by this filthy glutton. To get rid of it you can hardly count on the cat, for usually pussy is afraid to attack it. Nor are night-birds strong enough to battle with it, except the eagle-owl, which does not abound in any numbers.[103]The trap and poison are our only remaining means of overcoming this redoubtable foe.“The field-mouse is a little larger than the ordinary mouse. Its coat, which closely resembles that of the Norway rat, is reddish brown above and white underneath. Its eyes are large and prominent, its ears nearly black, and its feet white. Its tail, which is very long, like that of the common mouse, is thinly covered with hair and is black toward the end. The field-mouse frequents woods, hedges, fields, and gardens. It cuts down the stalks of grain to get at the ears, of which it nibbles a few kernels and wastefully scatters the rest. In its quest for food it unearths newly planted seeds, takes a taste of the young shoots that have just come up, gnaws the bark of shrubs, and feasts on growing vegetables. Its ravages are all the more serious because it lays up provisions against a time of need. In storage chambers more than a foot underground, beneath some tree trunk or rock, it collects grain, hazelnuts, acorns, almonds, and chestnuts, often going a considerable distance to get them. One such store-room is not enough; it must have several, for it has a way of foolishly forgetting where its treasure is buried. In winter the field-mouse ventures to approach our houses and makes its way into our cellars where fruit and vegetables are kept, or it establishes itself in great numbers in our granaries.Harvest Mouse and NestHarvest Mouse and Nest“The dwarf rat or harvest-mouse is the smallest[104]rodent of France. It is a graceful creature, smaller than the common mouse, and of a yellowish tawny color, which is brighter on the rump than elsewhere; but the belly, breast, and throat are a beautiful white, and the tail and feet a light yellow. The ears, which stand out but very little beyond the fur of the head, are rounded and hairy, and the eyes are prominent. The dwarf rat lives exclusively in grain-fields and feeds on grain. After the harvest it takes refuge in the stacks of grain, especially in oat-stacks, but is never bold enough to enter houses. I am telling you about this pretty little rodent not so much because I begrudge it the few grains of oats[105]it steals from us as because I wish to acquaint you with its nest.“Other rats rear their young either in a hole in a rock or a wall or in a burrow dug for the purpose. The harvest-mouse, however, scorns these stifling quarters; it must have an aërial nest like that built by birds. So it brings together several wheat-stalks as they stand in the field, interlaces them with bits of straw, and builds, half-way up from the ground, a nest as beautifully made as any bird’s. This nest is spherical, interwoven with leaves on the outside and padded with moss on the inside. It has only one little side opening, through which the rain cannot enter. Suspended at the height of several feet on the flexible support of the grain stalks, it swings to and fro with the slightest wind.”“How, then,” asked Emile, “does the little mouse manage to get in and out of its nest?”“It climbs up one of the stalks, being so small that this serves it perfectly as a ladder.”“If I ever come across a harvest-mouse I sha’n’t have the heart to do it any harm. It may go on eating oats in its pretty little nest, for all I care; I sha’n’t try to stop it.”“Here,” concluded Uncle Paul, “I will end my account of the chief representatives of the rat family in these regions. They are five in number: the black rat, the mouse, the Norway rat, the field-mouse, and the harvest-mouse.”[106]
[Contents]CHAPTER XIIIRATS“Let us return for a moment to the rodents, the habitual prey of the night-birds. You do not know them all, by any means, but we ought not to pass them by; for if some, like the hare and the rabbit, are useful to us, still more are very destructive. You remember those two pairs of incisors, so long and sharp, that I told you about when I described the rabbit’s teeth. All rodents have similar incisors. To keep them sharp and prevent them from overlapping too much by growing too long, which would make it impossible for the animal to feed itself, the rodent must wear them down by constant friction as fast as they grow. Consequently, these terrible incisors have, so to speak, no rest; they must always be nibbling something, no matter what. Thus the harm they do us is much greater than you would suspect from the size of the animal. How much actual food does a mouse need for one meal? Very little, unquestionably. A mouse is so small that a single nut will fill its stomach. Don’t think, however, that one day’s ravages are confined to that one nut. After the nut is eaten, the animal will proceed, perhaps, to gnaw a hole in a bag, reduce a piece of cloth to tatters, chew up a[99]book, or drill a hole in a board, simply and solely to whet its teeth. And the damage caused by rats and mice in our dwelling-houses is matched by other damage caused by other rodents in the fields. You must make the acquaintance of all these destroyers.”Norway or Brown RatNorway or Brown Rat(One-third natural size)“For my part,” Jules confessed, “I shouldn’t, if I saw it, know the field-mouse that you told us about in your talk on night-birds.”“I know rats and mice such as we have in the house,” said Emile, “but that’s all.”“And yet,” rejoined his uncle, “I very much doubt whether you have any real knowledge of the rat. I will begin with it.“The common or black rat is more than twice the size of a mouse. Its coat is nearly black above, and ashy gray underneath. It lives in granaries, thatched roofs, and abandoned ruins. If it fails to[100]find a lodging to its taste, it burrows a hole for itself. It is not a native with us, but is thought to have come from Asia in the wake of the armies returning from the Crusades. To-day the common rat is seldom mentioned in our country; another foreign rodent has come in, the Norway or brown rat, which, being larger than the common rat, has waged war against it and almost wiped out the species. We have not gained by the exchange; quite the contrary, the Norway rat being a much more troublesome creature. The true rat, the black rat, is rare now, especially where the other abounds; and that is why I doubt that any one of you is familiar with it. What you call a rat is more than likely to be one of these Norwegian invaders. Don’t forget the color—black—and you will have no difficulty in recognizing the true rat.“The mouse is much more familiar to you. It has been known from the earliest times all over the world. Need I describe this little rodent, so well known for its liveliness, its wily nature, and its extreme timidity, which makes it scuttle away to its hole at the slightest alarm?”“We all know the mouse very well,” Jules assured him.“The Norway or brown rat, also known as the sewer-rat, is the largest and most troublesome of all European rats. It attains a length of nearly a foot, without counting the tail, which is scaly like the mouse’s and a little shorter than the body. The largest and strongest Norway rat can cope with a[101]cat. Its presence in Europe dates only from the middle of the eighteenth century, and it seems to have been brought from India in the hold of ships, which it commonly infests. It has now spread all over the world. Its coat is reddish brown above and ashy gray underneath.“Norway rats frequent storehouses, cellars, sewers, slaughter-houses, and dumping grounds. Everything is food to these filthy and audacious creatures, and they even dare to attack a sleeping man. In large towns they multiply so fast as to cause serious alarm. The vicinity of the slaughter-house of Montfaucon in Paris is so undermined with their innumerable burrows that the buildings there are in danger of collapsing. To preserve them from this disaster it is necessary to protect their foundation against the attacks of the rodents by means of a deep enclosing belt of broken glass bottles.”“What attracts them in such numbers to these places?” asked Jules.“The abundance of food, the dead bodies of slaughtered horses. In one night, if left in the slaughter-house yards, dead horses are devoured to the skeleton. During severe frosts if the skin is not removed in time the Norway rats get inside the body, stay there, and eat all the flesh, so that when a thaw comes and the workmen begin to skin the animal, they find inside the skin nothing but a host of rats swarming among the bare bones.”“But don’t the people there have any cats to protect them?” asked Emile.[102]“Cats! The Norway rats would eat them alive, my boy, in no time. They have something better, however—dogs, both terriers and bulldogs, that run the rats down in the sewers with astonishing cleverness and break their back with one bite. The bulldog—that’s the kind of cat you need for such mice. This hunt in the sewer, moreover, must be frequently repeated, for Norway rats multiply with frightful rapidity, and if we were not careful the town would sooner or later be endangered; the horrible creature, strong in its numbers, would devour all Paris. In December of the year 1849 two hundred and fifty thousand rats were destroyed in a few days as the result of a single hunt.“In the country the Norway rat frequents the banks of foul streams; it enters kitchens through sink-holes; it gets into hen-houses and rabbit-warrens by undermining the walls. It haunts cellars and stables, but rarely makes its way into high granaries, doubtless because of its liking for filthy drainage and any kind of offal, which can be found only on ground floors and in basements. It pounces upon eggs and young fowls, and even has the boldness to suck the blood of full-grown poultry and rabbits. When it cannot get animal food, which is its first choice, it will eat grain and vegetables of all kinds. No sort of food is rejected by this filthy glutton. To get rid of it you can hardly count on the cat, for usually pussy is afraid to attack it. Nor are night-birds strong enough to battle with it, except the eagle-owl, which does not abound in any numbers.[103]The trap and poison are our only remaining means of overcoming this redoubtable foe.“The field-mouse is a little larger than the ordinary mouse. Its coat, which closely resembles that of the Norway rat, is reddish brown above and white underneath. Its eyes are large and prominent, its ears nearly black, and its feet white. Its tail, which is very long, like that of the common mouse, is thinly covered with hair and is black toward the end. The field-mouse frequents woods, hedges, fields, and gardens. It cuts down the stalks of grain to get at the ears, of which it nibbles a few kernels and wastefully scatters the rest. In its quest for food it unearths newly planted seeds, takes a taste of the young shoots that have just come up, gnaws the bark of shrubs, and feasts on growing vegetables. Its ravages are all the more serious because it lays up provisions against a time of need. In storage chambers more than a foot underground, beneath some tree trunk or rock, it collects grain, hazelnuts, acorns, almonds, and chestnuts, often going a considerable distance to get them. One such store-room is not enough; it must have several, for it has a way of foolishly forgetting where its treasure is buried. In winter the field-mouse ventures to approach our houses and makes its way into our cellars where fruit and vegetables are kept, or it establishes itself in great numbers in our granaries.Harvest Mouse and NestHarvest Mouse and Nest“The dwarf rat or harvest-mouse is the smallest[104]rodent of France. It is a graceful creature, smaller than the common mouse, and of a yellowish tawny color, which is brighter on the rump than elsewhere; but the belly, breast, and throat are a beautiful white, and the tail and feet a light yellow. The ears, which stand out but very little beyond the fur of the head, are rounded and hairy, and the eyes are prominent. The dwarf rat lives exclusively in grain-fields and feeds on grain. After the harvest it takes refuge in the stacks of grain, especially in oat-stacks, but is never bold enough to enter houses. I am telling you about this pretty little rodent not so much because I begrudge it the few grains of oats[105]it steals from us as because I wish to acquaint you with its nest.“Other rats rear their young either in a hole in a rock or a wall or in a burrow dug for the purpose. The harvest-mouse, however, scorns these stifling quarters; it must have an aërial nest like that built by birds. So it brings together several wheat-stalks as they stand in the field, interlaces them with bits of straw, and builds, half-way up from the ground, a nest as beautifully made as any bird’s. This nest is spherical, interwoven with leaves on the outside and padded with moss on the inside. It has only one little side opening, through which the rain cannot enter. Suspended at the height of several feet on the flexible support of the grain stalks, it swings to and fro with the slightest wind.”“How, then,” asked Emile, “does the little mouse manage to get in and out of its nest?”“It climbs up one of the stalks, being so small that this serves it perfectly as a ladder.”“If I ever come across a harvest-mouse I sha’n’t have the heart to do it any harm. It may go on eating oats in its pretty little nest, for all I care; I sha’n’t try to stop it.”“Here,” concluded Uncle Paul, “I will end my account of the chief representatives of the rat family in these regions. They are five in number: the black rat, the mouse, the Norway rat, the field-mouse, and the harvest-mouse.”[106]
CHAPTER XIIIRATS
“Let us return for a moment to the rodents, the habitual prey of the night-birds. You do not know them all, by any means, but we ought not to pass them by; for if some, like the hare and the rabbit, are useful to us, still more are very destructive. You remember those two pairs of incisors, so long and sharp, that I told you about when I described the rabbit’s teeth. All rodents have similar incisors. To keep them sharp and prevent them from overlapping too much by growing too long, which would make it impossible for the animal to feed itself, the rodent must wear them down by constant friction as fast as they grow. Consequently, these terrible incisors have, so to speak, no rest; they must always be nibbling something, no matter what. Thus the harm they do us is much greater than you would suspect from the size of the animal. How much actual food does a mouse need for one meal? Very little, unquestionably. A mouse is so small that a single nut will fill its stomach. Don’t think, however, that one day’s ravages are confined to that one nut. After the nut is eaten, the animal will proceed, perhaps, to gnaw a hole in a bag, reduce a piece of cloth to tatters, chew up a[99]book, or drill a hole in a board, simply and solely to whet its teeth. And the damage caused by rats and mice in our dwelling-houses is matched by other damage caused by other rodents in the fields. You must make the acquaintance of all these destroyers.”Norway or Brown RatNorway or Brown Rat(One-third natural size)“For my part,” Jules confessed, “I shouldn’t, if I saw it, know the field-mouse that you told us about in your talk on night-birds.”“I know rats and mice such as we have in the house,” said Emile, “but that’s all.”“And yet,” rejoined his uncle, “I very much doubt whether you have any real knowledge of the rat. I will begin with it.“The common or black rat is more than twice the size of a mouse. Its coat is nearly black above, and ashy gray underneath. It lives in granaries, thatched roofs, and abandoned ruins. If it fails to[100]find a lodging to its taste, it burrows a hole for itself. It is not a native with us, but is thought to have come from Asia in the wake of the armies returning from the Crusades. To-day the common rat is seldom mentioned in our country; another foreign rodent has come in, the Norway or brown rat, which, being larger than the common rat, has waged war against it and almost wiped out the species. We have not gained by the exchange; quite the contrary, the Norway rat being a much more troublesome creature. The true rat, the black rat, is rare now, especially where the other abounds; and that is why I doubt that any one of you is familiar with it. What you call a rat is more than likely to be one of these Norwegian invaders. Don’t forget the color—black—and you will have no difficulty in recognizing the true rat.“The mouse is much more familiar to you. It has been known from the earliest times all over the world. Need I describe this little rodent, so well known for its liveliness, its wily nature, and its extreme timidity, which makes it scuttle away to its hole at the slightest alarm?”“We all know the mouse very well,” Jules assured him.“The Norway or brown rat, also known as the sewer-rat, is the largest and most troublesome of all European rats. It attains a length of nearly a foot, without counting the tail, which is scaly like the mouse’s and a little shorter than the body. The largest and strongest Norway rat can cope with a[101]cat. Its presence in Europe dates only from the middle of the eighteenth century, and it seems to have been brought from India in the hold of ships, which it commonly infests. It has now spread all over the world. Its coat is reddish brown above and ashy gray underneath.“Norway rats frequent storehouses, cellars, sewers, slaughter-houses, and dumping grounds. Everything is food to these filthy and audacious creatures, and they even dare to attack a sleeping man. In large towns they multiply so fast as to cause serious alarm. The vicinity of the slaughter-house of Montfaucon in Paris is so undermined with their innumerable burrows that the buildings there are in danger of collapsing. To preserve them from this disaster it is necessary to protect their foundation against the attacks of the rodents by means of a deep enclosing belt of broken glass bottles.”“What attracts them in such numbers to these places?” asked Jules.“The abundance of food, the dead bodies of slaughtered horses. In one night, if left in the slaughter-house yards, dead horses are devoured to the skeleton. During severe frosts if the skin is not removed in time the Norway rats get inside the body, stay there, and eat all the flesh, so that when a thaw comes and the workmen begin to skin the animal, they find inside the skin nothing but a host of rats swarming among the bare bones.”“But don’t the people there have any cats to protect them?” asked Emile.[102]“Cats! The Norway rats would eat them alive, my boy, in no time. They have something better, however—dogs, both terriers and bulldogs, that run the rats down in the sewers with astonishing cleverness and break their back with one bite. The bulldog—that’s the kind of cat you need for such mice. This hunt in the sewer, moreover, must be frequently repeated, for Norway rats multiply with frightful rapidity, and if we were not careful the town would sooner or later be endangered; the horrible creature, strong in its numbers, would devour all Paris. In December of the year 1849 two hundred and fifty thousand rats were destroyed in a few days as the result of a single hunt.“In the country the Norway rat frequents the banks of foul streams; it enters kitchens through sink-holes; it gets into hen-houses and rabbit-warrens by undermining the walls. It haunts cellars and stables, but rarely makes its way into high granaries, doubtless because of its liking for filthy drainage and any kind of offal, which can be found only on ground floors and in basements. It pounces upon eggs and young fowls, and even has the boldness to suck the blood of full-grown poultry and rabbits. When it cannot get animal food, which is its first choice, it will eat grain and vegetables of all kinds. No sort of food is rejected by this filthy glutton. To get rid of it you can hardly count on the cat, for usually pussy is afraid to attack it. Nor are night-birds strong enough to battle with it, except the eagle-owl, which does not abound in any numbers.[103]The trap and poison are our only remaining means of overcoming this redoubtable foe.“The field-mouse is a little larger than the ordinary mouse. Its coat, which closely resembles that of the Norway rat, is reddish brown above and white underneath. Its eyes are large and prominent, its ears nearly black, and its feet white. Its tail, which is very long, like that of the common mouse, is thinly covered with hair and is black toward the end. The field-mouse frequents woods, hedges, fields, and gardens. It cuts down the stalks of grain to get at the ears, of which it nibbles a few kernels and wastefully scatters the rest. In its quest for food it unearths newly planted seeds, takes a taste of the young shoots that have just come up, gnaws the bark of shrubs, and feasts on growing vegetables. Its ravages are all the more serious because it lays up provisions against a time of need. In storage chambers more than a foot underground, beneath some tree trunk or rock, it collects grain, hazelnuts, acorns, almonds, and chestnuts, often going a considerable distance to get them. One such store-room is not enough; it must have several, for it has a way of foolishly forgetting where its treasure is buried. In winter the field-mouse ventures to approach our houses and makes its way into our cellars where fruit and vegetables are kept, or it establishes itself in great numbers in our granaries.Harvest Mouse and NestHarvest Mouse and Nest“The dwarf rat or harvest-mouse is the smallest[104]rodent of France. It is a graceful creature, smaller than the common mouse, and of a yellowish tawny color, which is brighter on the rump than elsewhere; but the belly, breast, and throat are a beautiful white, and the tail and feet a light yellow. The ears, which stand out but very little beyond the fur of the head, are rounded and hairy, and the eyes are prominent. The dwarf rat lives exclusively in grain-fields and feeds on grain. After the harvest it takes refuge in the stacks of grain, especially in oat-stacks, but is never bold enough to enter houses. I am telling you about this pretty little rodent not so much because I begrudge it the few grains of oats[105]it steals from us as because I wish to acquaint you with its nest.“Other rats rear their young either in a hole in a rock or a wall or in a burrow dug for the purpose. The harvest-mouse, however, scorns these stifling quarters; it must have an aërial nest like that built by birds. So it brings together several wheat-stalks as they stand in the field, interlaces them with bits of straw, and builds, half-way up from the ground, a nest as beautifully made as any bird’s. This nest is spherical, interwoven with leaves on the outside and padded with moss on the inside. It has only one little side opening, through which the rain cannot enter. Suspended at the height of several feet on the flexible support of the grain stalks, it swings to and fro with the slightest wind.”“How, then,” asked Emile, “does the little mouse manage to get in and out of its nest?”“It climbs up one of the stalks, being so small that this serves it perfectly as a ladder.”“If I ever come across a harvest-mouse I sha’n’t have the heart to do it any harm. It may go on eating oats in its pretty little nest, for all I care; I sha’n’t try to stop it.”“Here,” concluded Uncle Paul, “I will end my account of the chief representatives of the rat family in these regions. They are five in number: the black rat, the mouse, the Norway rat, the field-mouse, and the harvest-mouse.”[106]
“Let us return for a moment to the rodents, the habitual prey of the night-birds. You do not know them all, by any means, but we ought not to pass them by; for if some, like the hare and the rabbit, are useful to us, still more are very destructive. You remember those two pairs of incisors, so long and sharp, that I told you about when I described the rabbit’s teeth. All rodents have similar incisors. To keep them sharp and prevent them from overlapping too much by growing too long, which would make it impossible for the animal to feed itself, the rodent must wear them down by constant friction as fast as they grow. Consequently, these terrible incisors have, so to speak, no rest; they must always be nibbling something, no matter what. Thus the harm they do us is much greater than you would suspect from the size of the animal. How much actual food does a mouse need for one meal? Very little, unquestionably. A mouse is so small that a single nut will fill its stomach. Don’t think, however, that one day’s ravages are confined to that one nut. After the nut is eaten, the animal will proceed, perhaps, to gnaw a hole in a bag, reduce a piece of cloth to tatters, chew up a[99]book, or drill a hole in a board, simply and solely to whet its teeth. And the damage caused by rats and mice in our dwelling-houses is matched by other damage caused by other rodents in the fields. You must make the acquaintance of all these destroyers.”
Norway or Brown RatNorway or Brown Rat(One-third natural size)
Norway or Brown Rat
(One-third natural size)
“For my part,” Jules confessed, “I shouldn’t, if I saw it, know the field-mouse that you told us about in your talk on night-birds.”
“I know rats and mice such as we have in the house,” said Emile, “but that’s all.”
“And yet,” rejoined his uncle, “I very much doubt whether you have any real knowledge of the rat. I will begin with it.
“The common or black rat is more than twice the size of a mouse. Its coat is nearly black above, and ashy gray underneath. It lives in granaries, thatched roofs, and abandoned ruins. If it fails to[100]find a lodging to its taste, it burrows a hole for itself. It is not a native with us, but is thought to have come from Asia in the wake of the armies returning from the Crusades. To-day the common rat is seldom mentioned in our country; another foreign rodent has come in, the Norway or brown rat, which, being larger than the common rat, has waged war against it and almost wiped out the species. We have not gained by the exchange; quite the contrary, the Norway rat being a much more troublesome creature. The true rat, the black rat, is rare now, especially where the other abounds; and that is why I doubt that any one of you is familiar with it. What you call a rat is more than likely to be one of these Norwegian invaders. Don’t forget the color—black—and you will have no difficulty in recognizing the true rat.
“The mouse is much more familiar to you. It has been known from the earliest times all over the world. Need I describe this little rodent, so well known for its liveliness, its wily nature, and its extreme timidity, which makes it scuttle away to its hole at the slightest alarm?”
“We all know the mouse very well,” Jules assured him.
“The Norway or brown rat, also known as the sewer-rat, is the largest and most troublesome of all European rats. It attains a length of nearly a foot, without counting the tail, which is scaly like the mouse’s and a little shorter than the body. The largest and strongest Norway rat can cope with a[101]cat. Its presence in Europe dates only from the middle of the eighteenth century, and it seems to have been brought from India in the hold of ships, which it commonly infests. It has now spread all over the world. Its coat is reddish brown above and ashy gray underneath.
“Norway rats frequent storehouses, cellars, sewers, slaughter-houses, and dumping grounds. Everything is food to these filthy and audacious creatures, and they even dare to attack a sleeping man. In large towns they multiply so fast as to cause serious alarm. The vicinity of the slaughter-house of Montfaucon in Paris is so undermined with their innumerable burrows that the buildings there are in danger of collapsing. To preserve them from this disaster it is necessary to protect their foundation against the attacks of the rodents by means of a deep enclosing belt of broken glass bottles.”
“What attracts them in such numbers to these places?” asked Jules.
“The abundance of food, the dead bodies of slaughtered horses. In one night, if left in the slaughter-house yards, dead horses are devoured to the skeleton. During severe frosts if the skin is not removed in time the Norway rats get inside the body, stay there, and eat all the flesh, so that when a thaw comes and the workmen begin to skin the animal, they find inside the skin nothing but a host of rats swarming among the bare bones.”
“But don’t the people there have any cats to protect them?” asked Emile.[102]
“Cats! The Norway rats would eat them alive, my boy, in no time. They have something better, however—dogs, both terriers and bulldogs, that run the rats down in the sewers with astonishing cleverness and break their back with one bite. The bulldog—that’s the kind of cat you need for such mice. This hunt in the sewer, moreover, must be frequently repeated, for Norway rats multiply with frightful rapidity, and if we were not careful the town would sooner or later be endangered; the horrible creature, strong in its numbers, would devour all Paris. In December of the year 1849 two hundred and fifty thousand rats were destroyed in a few days as the result of a single hunt.
“In the country the Norway rat frequents the banks of foul streams; it enters kitchens through sink-holes; it gets into hen-houses and rabbit-warrens by undermining the walls. It haunts cellars and stables, but rarely makes its way into high granaries, doubtless because of its liking for filthy drainage and any kind of offal, which can be found only on ground floors and in basements. It pounces upon eggs and young fowls, and even has the boldness to suck the blood of full-grown poultry and rabbits. When it cannot get animal food, which is its first choice, it will eat grain and vegetables of all kinds. No sort of food is rejected by this filthy glutton. To get rid of it you can hardly count on the cat, for usually pussy is afraid to attack it. Nor are night-birds strong enough to battle with it, except the eagle-owl, which does not abound in any numbers.[103]The trap and poison are our only remaining means of overcoming this redoubtable foe.
“The field-mouse is a little larger than the ordinary mouse. Its coat, which closely resembles that of the Norway rat, is reddish brown above and white underneath. Its eyes are large and prominent, its ears nearly black, and its feet white. Its tail, which is very long, like that of the common mouse, is thinly covered with hair and is black toward the end. The field-mouse frequents woods, hedges, fields, and gardens. It cuts down the stalks of grain to get at the ears, of which it nibbles a few kernels and wastefully scatters the rest. In its quest for food it unearths newly planted seeds, takes a taste of the young shoots that have just come up, gnaws the bark of shrubs, and feasts on growing vegetables. Its ravages are all the more serious because it lays up provisions against a time of need. In storage chambers more than a foot underground, beneath some tree trunk or rock, it collects grain, hazelnuts, acorns, almonds, and chestnuts, often going a considerable distance to get them. One such store-room is not enough; it must have several, for it has a way of foolishly forgetting where its treasure is buried. In winter the field-mouse ventures to approach our houses and makes its way into our cellars where fruit and vegetables are kept, or it establishes itself in great numbers in our granaries.
Harvest Mouse and NestHarvest Mouse and Nest
Harvest Mouse and Nest
“The dwarf rat or harvest-mouse is the smallest[104]rodent of France. It is a graceful creature, smaller than the common mouse, and of a yellowish tawny color, which is brighter on the rump than elsewhere; but the belly, breast, and throat are a beautiful white, and the tail and feet a light yellow. The ears, which stand out but very little beyond the fur of the head, are rounded and hairy, and the eyes are prominent. The dwarf rat lives exclusively in grain-fields and feeds on grain. After the harvest it takes refuge in the stacks of grain, especially in oat-stacks, but is never bold enough to enter houses. I am telling you about this pretty little rodent not so much because I begrudge it the few grains of oats[105]it steals from us as because I wish to acquaint you with its nest.
“Other rats rear their young either in a hole in a rock or a wall or in a burrow dug for the purpose. The harvest-mouse, however, scorns these stifling quarters; it must have an aërial nest like that built by birds. So it brings together several wheat-stalks as they stand in the field, interlaces them with bits of straw, and builds, half-way up from the ground, a nest as beautifully made as any bird’s. This nest is spherical, interwoven with leaves on the outside and padded with moss on the inside. It has only one little side opening, through which the rain cannot enter. Suspended at the height of several feet on the flexible support of the grain stalks, it swings to and fro with the slightest wind.”
“How, then,” asked Emile, “does the little mouse manage to get in and out of its nest?”
“It climbs up one of the stalks, being so small that this serves it perfectly as a ladder.”
“If I ever come across a harvest-mouse I sha’n’t have the heart to do it any harm. It may go on eating oats in its pretty little nest, for all I care; I sha’n’t try to stop it.”
“Here,” concluded Uncle Paul, “I will end my account of the chief representatives of the rat family in these regions. They are five in number: the black rat, the mouse, the Norway rat, the field-mouse, and the harvest-mouse.”[106]