“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. “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. The trap and poison are our only remaining means of overcoming this redoubtable foe.