. The pests of the farm; being an account of the various depredating animals, birds, and insects which annoy the American farmer . ttle between the rats and man for the produce of the ground, andwhen that produce owes its existence to the labor of the latter, that3 50 THE TESTS OF THE FARM. he possesses every legitimate right to exterminate, if lie can, hisvermin foes, root and branch, and to cry, with the clearest of con-sciences, M War—war to the— trap ! There are three descriptions of Rat generally known as a nui-sance to the farmer or merchant: the common Brown or NorwayRat, the indigenous
. The pests of the farm; being an account of the various depredating animals, birds, and insects which annoy the American farmer . ttle between the rats and man for the produce of the ground, andwhen that produce owes its existence to the labor of the latter, that3 50 THE TESTS OF THE FARM. he possesses every legitimate right to exterminate, if lie can, hisvermin foes, root and branch, and to cry, with the clearest of con-sciences, M War—war to the— trap ! There are three descriptions of Rat generally known as a nui-sance to the farmer or merchant: the common Brown or NorwayRat, the indigenous Black Rat. and the Water Rat. The last men-tioned is seldom a true rat; for what is usually known as Water Batis not a rat at all, but an animal of an allied genus, properly to becalled Vole, The common Brown Rat sometimes also presents Al-bino characters, that is to say, it is occasionally to be found of awhite color, with red eyes. It is not my intention, neither wouldit suit the purpose of the present w~ork, to enter at any length intothe natural history of these animals ; a brief description will there-fore THE COMMOX BROWX RAT. The most formidable is the common Brown Rat (mus dtcumanns),an animal for whose importation we are indebted to the Xorwegians,and which has now almost wholly extirpated our indigenous va-riety, the Black Rat (rnus rattus). These animals require no de-scription ;—very little to our satisfaction, we are too well acquaintedwith their appearance. The Black Rat is smaller than the nowcommon variety ; its color is a slaty blue, sometimes a jet black,and its tail is longer and more scaly than that of its Xorweo*ianconqueror. The White Rat is rare, and is merely an accidentalvariety of the Brown. These animals are all equally mischievous,and resemble each other in their habits, so that the same mode ofdestruction will answer for all. Various plans for the destructionof rats have been suggested, but I confess that I am not a littlesurprised
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