Although not averse to a vegetable diet--as those who have to do with corn and seeds, whether in the field or the store-house, know to their cost--the Brown Rat evinces a decided preference for animal food, which he consumes of all kinds and in all states. The case of the horse slaughter-houses of Montfaucon, near Paris, is well known; here, the carcases of all the Horses killed during the day, sometimes to the number of thirty-five, would be picked to the bone by the next morning; and one main argument against the removal of the establishment to a greater distance from the city was that these swarms of ferocious vermin would be left without means of support, and would become a complete pest in the neighbourhood. That such an apprehension was not unfounded is proved by several instances recorded of the escape of Rats from wrecked ships upon small islands. In the course of a few years they exterminated every other living thing. Professor Bell, on the authority of the late Mr. Robert Stephenson, relates the following instance of the extreme ferocity of the Rat when driven by hunger:--“In a coal-pit,” he says, “in which many Horses were employed, the Rats, which fed upon the fodder provided for the Horses, had accumulated in great multitudes. It was customary in holiday times to bring to the surface the Horses and the fodder, and to close the pit for the time. On one occasion, when the holiday had extended to ten days or a fortnight, during which the Rats had been deprived of food, on re-opening the pit, the first man who descended was attacked by the starving multitude, and speedily killed and devoured.” Stories are also told, with what truth we do not know, of the occurrence of similar catastrophes in the sewers of Paris and London, where, as is well known, Rats abound. The Brown Rat breeds several times during the year, and produces as many as ten, twelve, or fourteen young ones in a litter. Its general length is about nine inches. It may be distinguished from the old English Rat, which it has displaced in most localities, by its greyish-brown colour and by the comparative shortness of its ears, which, when pressed down, do not reach the eye.