A Trio of Rat Stories.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 166, 23 July 1896, Page 5

A Trio of Rat Stories.

♦ In his 'studies in Rat-catching,' Mr H. Barkley tells us that he had trained his dogs and ferrets so well that his services were in request as a competent and paid rat-catcher ; and the total of the days earnings, 2d per rat, is duly entered after the description of the day's sporfc. old ladies living in large country houses used to send for him to devise means for ridding them of demon rats who baffled the regular practitioners, and the discoveries made in these visits areas curious as anything yet published m the history 0 f household pets. In one case a house was perfectly free from rats, yet Gvei . y nigbt a rat came to the fowl-h OU se and carried off hens eggs or young ducks or chickens. Hedges, ditches, sheds, outhouses and stables were examined with the aid of a trained dog, yet nofc a trace of a rafc could be discovered. The dog was even made to r un ov er the roofs of the buildings in case rats were lurking iinder the tiles. One afternoon Mr Barkley requested that a dog, which was fciea up i n a k en nel, m ight be removed, as its barking disturbed the other dogs. As soon as the bouse; dog was removed, one of Mr Barkley's terriers pointed a rat under the kennel. No hole was visible, but the dog then entered the kennel and pointed a h 0 i c through the floor. The predatory r a _ wag found bene ath, and ?u V 1 h° Was on 'y one hole, it was evident that it m ns (j have p aS g e d an d repassed the dog w jj en asleep every night: ' In anther house the dogs pointed a sofa in the bedroom. A rat had eaten a hole in the sacking near one of the legs, and made a nest among the springs. A ferret was put in ; there was a rush and a scuffle, the sofa seemed alive ; three or four small rats bolted out, another squeak and a rush, and out came the mother, and then, as the ferret did nofc come out, I ripped open the sacking, and found it eating a tender young rat. Church mice are common in the Eastern Countries, which were the scene of Mr Barkley's experiences ; they ai - e alleged to live on the samples of barley and wheat which the farmers pull out of their pockets at vestry meetings, and drop on the floor and desk. But Mr Barclay discovered, and in due course caught, a church rat. He was musing during the sermon, sitting on a bench opposite a scoi"e of village school cbiidren, when he was suddedly struck with the curious resemblance of expression, not in one, but in the whole row, to tbat of his own dogs, when they found a rat. He was reproaching himself with dreaming, when he noticed that all the eyes were turned in one direction, and there he saw the cause — a rat just peeping out of a hole in the brick floor and apparently listening to the sermon. It was duly caught next day. — ' Spectator.'