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ALL ABOUT FERRETS AND RATS
A Complete History of Ferrets, Rats, and Rat Extermination
from Personal Experiences and Study.
Also
A Practical Hand-Book on the Ferret.
by
"SURE POP."
(ADOLPH ISAACSEN.)
Second Edition.
PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS.
New York:
Adolph Isaacsen, Publisher,
No. 92 Fulton Street.
Entered, according to act of Congress, in the year 1890,
By Adolph Isaacsen,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
INTRODUCTORY 5
THE FERRET.
I. What a Ferret Is 7
II. Character and Appearance 9
III. Rat Hunting 11
IV. Food 14
V. Ferret Houses 15
VI. Diseases 16
VII. Hardiness 17
VIII. Breeding and Training 19
IX. Strength and Bite 20
X. Handling 21
XI. With Cats and Dogs 21
XII. Advantages as a Rat Exterminator 22
XIII. Miscellaneous 23
THE RAT.
I. The Rat Family and its Varieties 27
II. Rat History 27
III. The King's Own Rat-Catcher 29
IV. Rat Society, Cannibalism, and Friendship 30
V. Multiplying Powers 33
VI. Unabridged Bill of Fare 34
VII. Ferocity 35
VIII. Rats in Breweries, Slaughter Houses, Markets,
Stables, and Barn-yards 36
IX. Rats as Wine Drinkers 38
X. Destructiveness 39
XI. Rats as Food 40
XII. Rat Nests 43
XIII. The Rat's Musical Talents and Eyesight 45
XVI. Rats as Moralists 46
XV. Rats in the Good Old Days, and the Modern Rat
Superstitions 47
XVI. Review of the Rat, and Conclusion 49
RAT EXTERMINATION.
I. Traps 51
II. Poisons 54
III. Dogs, Cats, and Ferrets 56
IV. Human Rat Catchers 56
THE ORIGIN OF THE FERRET, with hints to Darwin. 57
INTRODUCTORY.
In the following pages we have given a complete review of the
ever-important rat exterminating subject, from a practical man's point
of view. The essay on the Ferret has been exhaustively treated, is a
special feature of the work, and will be found of great value to the
rat-ridden part of the community, as well as to the fancier and
naturalist. "The Rat" has been handled from a universal point of view,
and the book has been prepared from the writer's practical notes during
his thirty years' study of Rats and Rat Extermination.
THE FERRET.
[Illustration]
I.--WHAT A FERRET IS.
Our dictionaries say that "ferret" as a verb active means to search out
carefully. This is certainly an important function of the animal, but,
as it belongs to the Musteline or flesh-eating weasel family, it has
also inherited these animals' boldness and savageness, though tempered
and exercised in a very useful direction, i. e., of killing off the
most bothersome and numerous of our vermin for us. It is rather a
well-known family, the one to which the ferret belongs, including such
animals as the sable, which furnishes the highly-prized fur, the skunk,
with its not as greatly valued perfume, the ermine, the color of which
is likened to the driven snow and whose dress forms the badge of
royalty, the weasel, from which artists obtain their finest brushes, the
marten, the badger, and the otter. The shape of these animals, the
characteristics being strongly marked in the ferret, is long, slender,
and serpentine (snake-like and winding), their teeth are very sharp, the
muzzle and legs short. Their average food is rats, rabbits, and birds.
Members of this class are found in all climates and parts of the earth.
It is necessary to state, primarily, that there is no such thing as a
wild ferret; it is domesticated in the same degree as a cat or a dog.
The wild animal from which the ferret is bred is the weasel, just as the
dog is originally of wolf extraction, and the cat of the same class as
the tiger or lion. The ferret is also interbred with the different
species of the musteline tribe, such as the mink, marten, polecat, and
fitch. These are nevertheless all weasels in the same way that terriers,
black and tans, Newfoundlands, and poodles all belong to the family of
dogs. The ferret's origin has been traced by some to Spain, by others
again to the northwestern part of Africa, and by still different writers
as far away from us as Egypt, but it was first used authentically for
ratting and rabbiting in Great Britain, where it is most highly prized,
its merits understood, and where almost every one is as familiar with it
as he is with the nature of his house cat. The public here in America is
yet but indifferently acquainted with the ferret. At an exhibition of
ferrets made by the writer at Madison Square Garden there was about one
out of every fifteen persons that knew the name of the animal at all,
and the ferrets were alternately designated as skunks, weasels,
guinea-pigs, raccoons, monkeys, woodchucks, kittens, puppies, squirrels,
rabbits, chipmunks, rats (an animal for which they are commonly
mistaken), hares, martens, otters, small kangaroos, muskrats, beavers,
seals, and, ridiculous as it may seem, small bears. The American race of
ferrets has been bred to a high degree of intelligence, as the proper
medium of wildness in the hunt and docility to its keeper has been
obtained principally through the efforts of the present writer. This,
however, has only been brought about after a great deal of close study
and experiment in cross breeding, until now the American animal is
greatly preferable to its more sluggish and vicious English brother.
II.--CHARACTER AND APPEARANCE.
Every individual ferret has a character and distinct look of its own,
although there are some ugly, scarred, and bony specimens with game legs
and glass eyes, still the ferret, when in good condition, is a pretty
little animal, with soft fur and kittenish ways, and can be handled and
fondled after you have become mutually acquainted, the same as a cat. It
can never be made as trustworthy as a dog, because it does not possess
as much intelligence. The general colors are white, yellow, and a
mixture of black, brown, gray, and tan, varied with gray and white
patches over and under the neck and body. _The tint runs according to
the predominance of either mink, marten, fitch, or polecat blood._ The
ferret is essentially a _useful_ animal, and is not valued for its good
looks, but the purely colored, pink-eyed, white ferret, with its plump
form and beautiful, glossy coat of a creamy shade, does certainly not
present an ungainly appearance. The dark ones are a sprightly company,
too, with their friendly, sparkling black eyes and social nature. There
is no standard size--there are large and small breeds, the age having
nothing to do with its inches. Some ferrets never get to be bigger than
a size beyond a dock rat, while I have had others as large as a full
grown cat. There are ferrets more valuable as hunters than others on
account of their wiry forms, their age, experience, and intelligence. I
have small, homely ferrets, which persons not understanding ferret
peculiarities would pick out as the most miserable and stupid of a lot,
but which in reality are choice hunting stock. There is no preference
for small or large ferrets, as they are both good for different
purposes. Ferrets are cleanly animals both in appearance and in their
habits. Their jumping and climbing powers are limited. There is a
curious thing about the ferret that reminds us of its kinsmanship with
the gentle-tempered skunk, for _when it is teased or aggravated_
(showing this also by bristling up the hair of its tail) it emits a
pungent odor from a gland it has underneath the tail. This only happens
in extreme cases, otherwise it is peaceful enough except toward its
natural prey. _Different lots of ferrets, strangers to each other, will
not agree, and should not be put together, as there is a risk of a
deadly battle._ It is a pleasant enough thing to watch a number of
healthy ferrets at their antics. On the writer's breeding grounds, where
the pens are always kept neatly painted and the sawdust carefully
leveled on the floor, making it look like a lawn in yellow, they
generally huddle up in a snug heap, presenting a confused jumble of
heads, tails, blinking eyes, and indistinguishable masses of fur. This
is during the daytime, after they have been fed. Toward dusk, or when
they are hungry again, they disentangle themselves from the bunch, one
by one, and after they have properly yawned and stretched themselves
they are very lively. They frisk and gambol about like lambs in a
pasture, without the odd, long-legged appearance of the lamb, but they
make up for this by humping up their backs like small dromedaries. They
get to tumbling over one another in a comic, clown-like way, they run,
galop, trot, and hop, and sit erect on their haunches. This latter
action they perform in expectation of a mouse, a special delicacy with
them, though but a mouthful, from the keepers leaning over the pens
above. Upon the whole they seem to be enjoying life immensely,
presenting quite a study of animal contentment and happiness.
III.--RAT HUNTING.
When the word rat is mentioned in connection with the ferret, our
pacific scene is changed to one of war and bloodshed. The savage
instincts of the animal are then aroused, and the rat itself knows, when
it has caught the ferret's scent, that its time has come. There are no
two animals more deadly enemies than these, the ferret being constructed
in such a way that it is best adapted to hunt the rat in the rat's own
haunts. Wherever a rat can go a ferret can go, because the latter's body
is as flexible as rubber, and it can squeeze itself up, draw itself
out, and flatten its limbs into a likeness of a New England buckwheat
cake, as if there wasn't a bone in its body. The weasels, and nearly all
wild animals of this division, after killing the prey suck the blood,
eat the brain, leave the rest of the body untouched, and then proceed to
annihilate the next victim, repeating the operation. Here is where the
difference between the ferret and the other animals of its tribe comes
in, for it does not content itself with brain food and such ethereal
substances, but devours the whole carcass with a fine relish, not even
leaving the tail or the skin. It bolts the bones and everything else
thereto appertaining. It is rather an appalling experience for the first
time to hear the hungry ferret's teeth go crunch, crunch, as they meet
in the neck of some fat rodent. This sound bears a resemblance to a
cowboy chewing radishes. A very hungry ferret would commence to devour
the rat before it had thoroughly made its exit into the sweet
subsequently. In using ferrets to clear a house of rats, they should be
allowed to nose through the building during the night with the same
freedom accorded a domestic animal. During the day they are kept in the
pen. The reason a ferret should be hunted with in the night is that it
sees better then, and that it is instinctively better fitted for
hunting. The rats also become more venturesome at this time. When the
ferrets are to be hunted with, feed them slightly, as feeding blunts
their hunting capabilities and makes them worthless. After a good feed a
ferret will sleep harder than any other domestic animal. Sometimes you
will find a ferret so hard asleep that you can take him up, shake him,
and then put him down again without waking him. If you are inexperienced
in the ways of the ferret, you will imagine you have a corpse on your
hands. But the corpse will in a short time open its eyes, shake itself,
wag its tail, and then trot around with the others. When a ferret sleeps
he will let his companions tramp all over his head and body without
allowing himself to be disturbed in the least. When they have been fed
too well they will sleep and be of no further use. If these over-fed
ferrets are in a pen and you put rats in for them to kill, they will not
wake up even if the rats crawl all over them, although the rodents are
scared into fits and are trying to get away with all their might and
main. A hungry ferret around a house will go scenting around as hunting
dogs do, to discover any trace or hiding-place of his natural prey. This
in itself is enough to drive all the rats to Jericho and make them stay
there as long as the ferrets are kept around, for the rodents have an
acute bodily fear of these prowling detectives. A ferret's being bitten
by a rat happens only in extreme cases, but sometimes in cellars and
other places that are swarming with rats, ferrets that have first been
put in have to contend with great odds, and come out with some bruises.
_Therefore if even a good, old hunting ferret should be bitten by a rat,
he should not be used until the wound is perfectly healed again, even if
it should take two or three weeks._ The ferret is very peculiar in this
respect, and if this rule is not observed he may be spoiled as a hunter
forever afterwards. The ferrets hunt downward, and if put on the upper
or top floors in the evening they will turn up in the morning down in
the cellar driving the rats before them. They should be kept in a dry
place, and they rapidly get to know their pens, returning to them and
waiting to be put in when through hunting. With a moderate amount of
attention they will thrive and prosper in their work of extermination.
IV.--FOOD.
Ferrets should always be anxious for their meals. Rats are good ferret
food; but never feed dead rats, as you run the risk of the rats having
been previously poisoned, this also transmitting itself to the ferrets.
If there are plenty of rats in the place the ferrets will be able to do
their own choice marketing; otherwise, when not hunting, feed them
either crackers and milk or bread and milk, with a pan of water always
at hand in warm weather. Raw meat can be given them two or three times a
week, but never feed liver or salt meat. When milk is not handy use
water instead. For a pair of ferrets use a shallow pan for their food,
the pan to be as large as an ordinary saucer. Once a day is enough to
feed them. When you wish to hunt your ferrets at night feed them in the
morning, and they will be in the proper hunting condition when night
comes. Particular relishes are chicken heads, duck heads, rabbit heads,
and sparrows. Dilute the milk occasionally, and change off with the
bread or crackers soaked in water instead of milk. Besides this you can
feed your ferrets the same as you do your cat, with the exception above
mentioned. Ferrets enjoy their meals heartily--they grunt and smack
their lips with much satisfaction when fed; particularly so when
feasting off a rat, as there is nothing they enjoy more than a good,
big, healthy one--turning the rodent inside out and ploughing out the
interior with great exactness.
V.--FERRET HOUSES.
Ferrets must have plenty of good air, as they cannot stand being boxed
up closely for a great length of time without getting diseased. I have,
since the first edition of this book was printed, invented a model
ferret-cage, in which I keep my stock in perfect health and in prime
condition. I now make a specialty of manufacturing this contrivance, and
have dubbed it "The Sure Pop Ferret Cage." It is of a solid build, but
of a convenient size for expressage to any point. It is divided into two
sections: (A) for sleeping and (B) for exercise and feeding; connected
by an aperture just big enough for a ferret to get through. A
(sleeping-room) is one-fourth the size of B and is kept dark, except
that it has two small wire windows at each side which furnish perfect
ventilation. B (for exercise and feeding) is constructed of wire on the
top and the sides around a solid frame; the same flooring serving the
two apartments. There is a wide door on the end of the larger section
and also one on the roof of the smaller, so that the ferrets can be
conveniently taken out or handled and the cage cleaned at any time. In
winter it is best to keep the smaller division full of hay; it keeps the
ferrets warm and clean. In the larger part you can use sawdust or earth;
and another big advantage I wish to call attention to is the peculiar
manner in which the connecting aperture is placed, so that the ferrets
cannot carry out the hay, but can conveniently get from one apartment to
the other. The price at which I am now disposing of these cages ($5.00)
is merely nominal, but I prefer to have my stock housed in a comfortable
and correct manner, as the ferrets will then do better work and get
attached to their new master a great deal quicker than if their quarters
were neglected. The above cage is, as I have said, of a very convenient
size, and can be stored in the cellar of a house--if the cellar is
dry--or can be placed in a barn or stable, or, if needs be, can be put
into service as an independent out-of-door house. For the latter use the
larger apartment should be boarded up, so that the ferrets are not
completely exposed to the rough weather; it should also be kept three or
four inches above the ground. If sawdust is used, it should be cleaned
out at least every other day and replaced with a fresh supply. The hay
need not be changed for one week.
VI.--DISEASES.
On the topic of ferret diseases, all the advice I can give is of a
preventive, rather than of a curative, nature. My experience has been
that, when a ferret is sick, it is the wisest policy to kill it
immediately, as in all my practice I have never cured a sick ferret yet.
Of course there are numerous remedies advocated by persons who claim to
"know it all"; but experiment with these is simply a waste of time and
material. The common diseases of ferrets are foot-rot, distemper,
diphtheria, and influenza. Foot-rot is caused by dirt and neglect, and
is the most common, dangerous, and devastating. It makes the feet swell
out to twice their natural size, and become spongy; the nose and snout
get dirty; the eyes commence to run, become perceptibly weaker, and
then close. The tail also changes to a sandy and gravelly texture.
Distemper is only a case of foot-rot aggravated. In influenza the nose
runs violently, and there is the same affection of the eyes, accompanied
by incessant sneezing. Diphtheria is a throat trouble, indicated by
swelling of the neck, much heavy coughing, and nearly the same other
accompaniments as the above diseases. To prevent disease, cleanliness
and moderation are the simple antidotes: this is not such a hard thing
to accomplish, as the ferret is a strong animal for its size, and very
cleanly itself. Ferrets are sometimes run down by overwork in hunting,
and get to be dull and sluggish; but they will soon regain their vigor,
by letting them rest for awhile, and giving them plenty of food. Pure
air, fresh, raw, bloody meat, and good milk, will soon bring the ferrets
back to their natural state inside of a week.
Ferrets are sometimes troubled with fleas of a large size, that use the
animals up greatly if they are not checked immediately. A little Sure
Pop Insect Powder rubbed in dry with the hand will settle the insects
effectively in a very short time.
VII.--HARDINESS.
There are numerous remarkable examples of ferret toughness on record.
Not long since, the following came under my notice: A couple of ferrets
were used in a warehouse, and one of them, a handsome, dark-coated,
mink-bred animal, accidently fell through a hatchway from the fourth
story. He was brought to me in a horrible condition, the hinder part of
the body being entirely smashed out of shape, and completely paralyzed.
The poor brute was forced to drag along its useless trunk with the help
of its forefeet only. I thought myself the animal was assuredly done
for; but in a fortnight it had quite recovered the use of its limbs,
which also assumed their natural form and function. It was again enabled
to hop about as well as the rest; in fact, no trace of its former
complete demolition remained. Another noteworthy example was this: A
friend of mine, M---- was out rabbit-hunting with a companion carrying
his ferret, which had been muzzled, in his pocket, a common way of
transporting it. After he had bagged half a dozen rabbits in one place,
he secured his ferret again, and went on walking some distance through a
snowed-over part of the woods, chatting with his friend. He suddenly
felt in his pocket, and found his ferret had got away. They retraced
their steps, carefully searching for two or three hours high and low,
but without success. M---- went home, satisfied his ferret was lost.
Eight days afterwards, coming over the same ground, he saw a shadowy,
thin spot of dirty fur under a ridge, which, after he had more closely
examined, turned out to be the long-lost animal. It was completely
exhausted and reduced to a skeleton, but still showed some signs of
life. It had probably crawled in under some small opening in a ridge at
the time of its being dropped, and so had escaped M----'s attention. As
he found his ferret with the muzzle still on, it could not have procured
either food or drink. The poor brute must have suffered agonies, showing
_what horrible cruelty the practice of muzzling is_. M---- took his
ferret home, fed it well, and inside of a month it was entirely
restored, and just as good a ferret, in every respect, as ever. If
ferrets are together, and are kept strictly without food for a length of
time, they will devour one another quite readily, in lieu of better
fodder.
VIII.--BREEDING AND TRAINING.
Ferrets are rather difficult animals to raise in numbers--it requires a
large amount of patience, great care, and scrupulous neatness, although
when full grown they are very hardy. The writer's ferret breeding
grounds consist of special farms, on which are erected numbers of small
barn-like structures, each furnished inside with a dozen pens, and an
aisle running through the middle. Every pen is as large as a horse's
stall, the boarding and other accessories are kept clean by vigorous
scrubbing, the sawdust on the floor is changed once a day, and the pens
and the ferrets are otherwise attended by experienced ferret men. Here
the ferrets are taught to do their work of killing and hunting by
practical experiment on live rats. Although it is in the nature of
ferrets to hunt and kill rats, the same as it is for a bird to fly, yet
we find a little extra course of training is necessary in both cases.
It will not do to hunt with ferrets until they are at least seven months
old. Ferrets breed but once a year, and have from four to nine at a
litter on the average--it is very rarely they have two litters a year.
They are trained to the whistle by feeding them every time this
instrument is used, so that after awhile they promptly respond. The
ferret is ruled through his stomach. The time of the ferret's getting in
heat is in March, nine weeks after which they breed. The male invariably
takes hold of the female as if he were going to strangle her. The young
are born without hair, and must, therefore, be kept warm. They have
their eyes open in thirty days, and should be fed on as much milk as
they want.[A] The male should be removed from the female before the
littering, the symptoms of which are exactly like a cat or a dog, or
else he will destroy the entire brood. Care should be taken to have the
female well supplied with food during the period of copulation, or else
she may casually munch up the young herself, and the writer has lost
many a pretty litter by this little habit of the unnatural mother. As in
crops, there are years for raising ferrets which are more fortunate than
others, some seasons having a fatal effect on the young ones.
[A] They ought not to be handled before they are one month old.
IX.--STRENGTH AND BITE.
The great strength of the ferret is in the teeth, neck, and forefeet.
One ferret can hold up eight times its own weight with its teeth. Twenty
or thirty ferrets when hungry will fasten their teeth in a piece of meat
and can be picked up in this way and swung around without ever causing
them to think of letting go. They will hang to an object which they have
been provoked against with a persistence which would make a Bill Sykes
bull-dog blush with shame. The only way to loosen their hold is to grasp
them firmly around the neck with the pressure on the skull, and to
shove them _towards_ the object, not _from_ it, for if you try the
latter way you can pull for a day and a night without any perceptible
result on the ferret.
The bite of a ferret is not dangerous; they will only bite a human being
out of mistake, because they don't see well in the daytime. They imagine
you are kindly holding down some bit of meat for them to chew at, and
they don't bite because they are at all viciously inclined towards you.
Of course you don't want to tease, annoy, or step on them, or you may
find them loaded. If a ferret bites you, he will let go immediately, and
you and the ferret both will quickly realize the mistake.
X.--HANDLING.
Ferrets should at first be handled by the back of the neck. The tail is
the natural handle for lifting up a ferret, in the same degree that the
ears are of a rabbit. The ferret should only be _lifted_ by the tail and
should be handled by the back of the neck. After a wild ferret has been
handled this way for some time he will get to be very tame and you can
handle him in any way. He will get so that he will hop up in his pen at
your approach and want you to play with and caress him, although it is
never advisable to give him your perfect confidence, such as putting him
to your face, etc.
XI.--WITH CATS AND DOGS.
Ferrets are easily kept with cats and dogs, and after a little training
and discipline they will hunt together, the ferret being generally used
to drive out the rats from the holes in a barn, etc., and the dog doing
the killing. When they are first introduced to each other there will be
a little sparring, _and the dog's master must strictly forbid his dog to
touch the ferret or else the dog may kill it at the first wrestle_, but
after the novelty of each other's appearance has worn off they will lie
down together in one corner and be the best of friends, as I have
witnessed scores of times. The writer has cats and ferrets on his farm
that regularly feed and play together. Ferrets should not be kept in a
place with sick dogs or cats, as the disease will surely be transmitted
to them.
XII.--THE FERRET'S ADVANTAGES AS A RAT EXTERMINATOR.
Ferrets have been brought forward, chiefly by the labors of the present
writer, to be regarded within the last few years as domestic animals.
There is certainly, yet, a great degree of prejudice against the
ferret--a natural result of ignorance of its ways; but we firmly believe
that the more it comes in contact with man, and is bred in captivity,
the more readily it will be put by him in the division of common
domestic animals, and he will, furthermore, find it his best remedy in
rat extermination, making the latter worthies as scarce as the ordinary
rat has made its black-complexioned cousin.
For this latter purpose the ferret's most apparent advantages are as
follows:
_First._ There is nothing a rat is more afraid of, by nature, than a
ferret, so that the rats are driven off by acute bodily fear.
_Second._ The body of the ferret, and its small head also, is
remarkably flexible, thus enabling it to get into and drive out the
vermin from their holes and breeding-places.
_Third._ When through hunting they do not stray off, but return to
their pens, and wait there till they are put in.
_Fourth._ They devour the entire carcass of the rat, after killing
it, and do not leave the slightest trace of it around.
_Fifth._ The ferrets can be trained to obey the whistle somewhat
like a dog, and, by attaching a bell to their necks, they can always
be traced to whatever part of the building they may stray.
_Sixth._ After they get acquainted, and have been handled for some
time, they become affectionate pets, and can be fondled and caressed
freely.
_Seventh._ They are very cleanly, peaceful, and nondestructive in
other ways.
XIII.--MISCELLANEOUS.
Ferrets are extensively used to drive out rabbits from their holes,
although the laws are very stringent against this sport. For this
purpose they are generally muzzled, which is a cruel and unnecessary
practice. All that is required of the ferret is to drive and scare
out--the rabbit being then caught or shot. A bell around the ferret's
neck will scare off the rabbit immediately, because the ferret is slow,
and the rabbit will hear him coming from a distance. A properly trained
and handled ferret needs no harness of any kind. Never muzzle a ferret
for rats, as he may be savagely attacked where the rats are thick, and
then be unable to defend himself. Ferrets are muzzled by tying their
jaws, so that they can not bite, with waxed cords, etc. There are also
muzzles like those made for dogs, only fitted to the ferret's size.
A writer in a certain New York paper has put the ferrets to a peculiar
use, on account of their flexible bodies. The following is quoted from a
supposititious interview with the present writer: "A gentleman purchased
a ferret, and became greatly attached to it. To show me how well he had
trained him since the purchase, he called Pet (as he had dubbed him) to
his side, and, dropping his pencil behind a large immovable desk, where
it would be almost impossible to get it again, he merely said, "Get it!"
In an instant the ferret was off, and soon back again with the pencil in
his mouth. The gentleman said that he had been of great service to him
in that way, and he recommended them to all old ladies who are in the
habit of losing thimbles and spectacles in out-of-the-way nooks and
holes." We can not help remarking, that this certainly imputes a trifle
too much intelligence to the animal.
There seems to be a curious superstition regarding the ferret amongst
the lower classes of people from England, Ireland, and Scotland, to the
effect that the ferret possesses healing properties. I have numbers of
people come to me with pans of milk, part of which they want the ferrets
to lap up, reserving the other half for medicine. They firmly believe
this an infallible cure for whooping-cough in children. On some days so
many people come for this purpose, with milk in all sorts of vessels,
that the ferrets would certainly have burst their buttons, if they had
any, in trying to do justice to all of it. The people wait their turn
patiently, and come any day I appoint to have the ferrets drink some of
the milk. I have heard many miraculous accounts from them of Mrs.
So-and-so's baby who was down "that sick" with the whooping-cough, and
the "doctors givin' her up, and she comin' to directly by a drop o' the
milk the blessed little craythurs had been lappin' at; and it's the only
rale rimedy yer can put intire faith in."
The following is an extract from a Kansas newspaper: "An old Englishman
is now traveling through the country with two pair of ferrets, with
which he is making money by killing prairie-dogs. He has his pets in a
wire cage, and, going to a ranch where there are indications of
prairie-dogs, he offers to clean out the dog-town for 1 cent per dog.
The price appears so very small, that the ranchman does not hesitate to
accept the offer. One ferret will clean out from twenty to fifty dogs
before he tires out, or, rather, before he gets so full of blood of his
victims that he can't work well. When one is tired out, a fresh one is
put into service; and so on until the town is rid of dogs."
[Illustration]
THE RAT.
I.--THE RAT FAMILY AND ITS VARIETIES.
The cynical, and, as he is generally acknowledged, villainous old rat,
is a near kinsman of as innocent and peaceful a community as the
squirrels, rabbits, and hares are, at least the natural histories unite
in telling us that they all belong to the Rodentia or gnawing animal
family. The three great subdivisions of rat are the Black, Brown and
Water varieties. With the latter we have nothing to do, as it is an
innocent field animal that never goes near man or his works, and is not
properly one of the "whiskered vermin race" or rat breed. The dock rats
belong to the Brown brigade.
II.--RAT HISTORY.
Regarding the rat's history and antecedents we are informed in some
books on this subject, very positively, that the common or Brown rat was
brought from Norway, while other naturalists insist with a pertinacity
peculiar to the tribe that the animal originally comes from Persia and
India. We feel justified in believing with the majority that this kind
of vermin has its origin in Asia, that venerable continent of cholera,
Heathen-Chinee, and Old Testament. But again, whatsoever the different
opinions may be, it is certainly found that this species of rodent is
distributed over every country on the face of the earth in a very near
equal way, because every ship that leaves port takes in its cargo of
rats just as regularly as it does its cargo of provisions and
merchandise, and thus it can be readily seen how this delicate tender
blossom is carefully though unwittingly transplanted. In this way the
Brown rat, which is now the strongly predominant rat party, was brought
to New York and America in 1775 from England, which would doubtless give
great pleasure to that part of the population with an Anglo-maniac
tendency and would probably reconcile them much more to this sect of
vermin. In Europe the latter made their appearance in 1730, and then
spread out to every inhabitable country. "For men may come and men may
go, but I go on forever" would at the first glance seem to be the case
with the rat tribe as well as with the musical brooklet of Tennyson, yet
the history of the rat nations is like unto the history of man--one clan
waging a long and bitter war of conquest and extermination against the
other until hardly any trace of the conquered but once mighty and
ambitious race remains. The Black or Indigenous rat had things all its
own way in North America as well as through the rest of the civilized
earth, before the Brown species' sweeping invasion, the former having
been entirely subdued and are now very scarce. It was easy enough for
the brown rats to do this, because they were bigger, bolder, and more
ferocious. Their multiplying powers, too, were sixteen times greater
than the vanquished nation whose origin is shrouded in the darkest and
most complete mystery.
The writer has on several occasions observed a dark colored rat on
vessels coming from Brazil and other States of South and Central America
that was unlike any specimen of this animal he had remembered ever
seeing before. It was of a deep bluish tint, had an abnormally long
tail, very large ears, and sharp, fiery, bead-like eyes, that looked in
the dark like small electric lamps. Its agility and desperate
nervousness was something marvelous, and its bump of destructiveness was
largely developed also. This is probably a stray representative from
some struggling colony of the dethroned black rat nation. Small numbers
of them are occasionally brought to our own shores by these vessels. The
rats generally escape from the ships, whereupon, as soon as the vessel
is about to sail away again, their places are promptly filled by their
brown brethren. Then the desolate black rats stray to the sewers of the
city, where they are speedily overwhelmed and dispatched by members of
the other faction, their inveterate foes and conquerors.
III.--THE KING'S OWN RAT CATCHER.
Although this black rat is inferior to the brown tribe in strength,
size, and breeding powers, yet it must have been formidable also, for it
was formerly thought necessary in England to institute the queer court
position of rat catcher to the King. This was probably the case in other
countries, too, but no records of it have been kept. According to an old
historian this English rat catcher was a very dignified and mysterious
individual, generally with gypsy blood in his veins, as it was thought
necessary for him to know something of the Dark Science to properly
perform his duties. He was attired in a rich manner, wearing a scarlet
coat embroidered with yellow worsted on which were designed figures of
rats and mice destroying wheatsheaves. He was looked at with much awe
by the populace, as he turned out with a stately tread and great pomp,
carrying a heavy staff with the insignia of his exalted office, whenever
he took part in the royal pageants. This he did regularly, and it is
also stated that he had an attendant, who never took part in the
processions but who did the main part of the work, always with as much
mystery as possible, upon the munificent stipend of tuppence a month,
while the gentleman in the red coat superintended the job and received
the glory--differing radically in this respect from the rat catchers of
the present day.
IV.--RAT SOCIETY, CANNIBALISM, AND FRIENDSHIP.
Animals of nearly all kinds are fond of each other's society, and in
their natural wild state are always found in herds. The city rats live
in tribes or colonies of from twenty-five to sixty individuals, in the
winter more and in the summer less. In the cold weather, when they are
idle or at rest, they lie in one heap for the purpose of mutually
heating each other. They change from the bottom to the top and alternate
their positions very frequently, so as to give each one an opportunity
to enjoy the warmer place at the bottom. The warmer the locality the
less individuals there are in a heap. These rats live peacefully enough
amongst themselves when they have enough to eat, but the minute they are
apprised of a slightly vacant feeling in the region of the stomach they
become the most savage of animals.
The mother rat is very careful and fussy about her young until they get
to a certain age. When they have passed this period, however, and the
mother should, on some bright day, feel a trifle hungry, she would as
readily devour her offspring as the children would make a meal of her,
thus returning the compliment neatly. Individual cases of this kind
occur also amongst the canine family, where dog-bitches have dined
royally on a majority of their newly born pups. This tends to show that
man is not the only intelligent animal who occasionally uses his
fellow's carcass for fodder. Cannibalism, in the rat's case, takes place
generally when they are unable to get any other diet, but then they will
devour one another with gusto, skin, tail, bones, feathers, and all; the
stronger killing the weaker and sucking the blood first. Hot blood is
one of their greatest delicacies. The rats are born blind and naked, and
their bodies are at this time of their life in a wobbly and unformed
state. In this condition they would probably not be looked on by
outsiders as things of beauty or delicate morsels, yet they are eagerly
sought after by the old male rat to furnish him with his Sunday dinner
dessert. The male pigs, cats, ferrets, and rabbits also indulge in the
same pastime. This is made still more of a highly prized food for the
old man rat by its rarity, as the mother will fight to protect her young
with the boldness and savageness of a lioness defending her cubs. She
will even go to the pathetic extent of chewing up her young ones herself
rather than let them fall into the hands of her oppressor. The rats have
an arrangement amongst them similar to the old Greek health law of
killing off all sickly infants, that is, they eat their dead and infirm.
This accounts for the fact that rats are never found at large sick,
diseased, or disabled. Although, as a rule, it isn't considered the
correct thing with us to dine or breakfast from our departed
fathers-in-law or uncles, yet in the present case, peculiar as it may
seem, it is the only admirable trait about the rat. It forms a safeguard
to man against their increase, yet we must add, in a hurry, that the
check put upon their growth by their cannibalism is lamentably small
when compared to their enormous multiplying powers, which surpass those
of any other animal.
The writer had a curious experience in regard to the rat's sociability
and companionship. He had once confined in a cage a company of twelve
big slaughter-house rats and happened to neglect feeding them one
evening. The next morning he was rather astonished to find a well
polished backbone, a stubby remnant of tail, and only eleven other rats,
all huddled up together compactly, in the congregation. He then gave
them some food to stop them from further feeding on each other, but they
rudely refused this, and he was again surprised to see ten of the number
make a combined attack, that looked as if agreed upon, upon one
unfortunate but especially large sized rat. The latter tried desperately
enough to hold his own against such fearful odds, with much horrible
squealing and screaming among them and a great deal of severe
scratching, dashing, and tumbling against the tin-lined sides and the
wire roofing of the cage. In a few seconds they were ranged all around
in a circle feeding ravenously on the remains of the brave but ill-fated
warrior. The writer has noticed, in numerous instances where numbers of
rats were kept together in a cage, that they would on some occasions,
just as the humor seemed to strike them, prefer their relatives and
brethren as food to anything else. It did not matter, either, what
other form of diet or delicacy had been set before them.
V.--MULTIPLYING POWERS.
Great quantities of rats are trapped and poisoned and hunted down by all
animals larger than themselves; they are driven out of their homes, and
systematically destroyed by paid vermin-destroyers; still all this seems
to make but very slight impression on their numbers as they constantly
pop up serenely from below just as if "Sure Pop" and rat-traps had only
a mythic existence in fairy tales. They multiply prodigiously, the
female breeding on the average about eight times a year, and having as
many as fourteen at a litter, though in some instances this record has
been badly beaten. A writer on this subject calculates that from a
single pair of New York rats, living in moderately good circumstances,
there will spring in three years' time a snug, happy little family of
650,000 rodents, including mother, father, children, grandchildren,
great-grandchildren, etc., and making due allowance for emergencies,
accidents, and for a few hundred of them having been overpowered and
used for food by the rest of this most worshipful company. He allows an
average of eight young at a litter, half male and half female, the young
ones having a litter at six months old. One cause of their being so
prolific is that they flourish and breed as well on an abundance of
swill, refuse, and garbage, as if they were carefully and tenderly fed
three times a day.
VI.--THE RAT'S UNABRIDGED BILL OF FARE.
Next to the ostrich, the rat possesses the most capacious and
accommodating kind of stomach. He will swallow anything, digestible
or otherwise, although he can appreciate good things with much
intelligence, when he comes across them. His bill of fare ranges all the
way up from tallow-candles and shingles to roast-partridge and old
boots. Rats are broadly omnivorous, and their food varies widely with
their situation. They will eat soap, from the harsh and strong smelling
washerwoman's kind to the richly perfumed and tinted toilet variety.
With a vast and admirable toleration, they will feed upon bacon,
sponges, ham, roots, flour, pork, roast-fowl, from boarding-house
chicken to the microscopic quail; they will consume confectionery,
potatoes, tomatoes, turnips, other vegetables, fruit of every
description, from huckleberries to watermelons, raw, boiled, broiled, or
fried fish, suet, eggs, bread, mutton, cheese, and butter. Also raw,
cooked, boiled, broiled, fried, smoked, or roast-beef, and they swallow
with keen relish wines of all brands and vintages, beer, whisky, gin,
and brandy, and evince a loving fondness for all grades of oil, from the
dirtiest, coarsest whale's blubber to the finest olive. The rat is
verily a most cosmopolitan glutton, and enjoys the favorite dishes of
the various nations with much the same hearty appreciation throughout,
hugely delighting himself with frog's hind-legs in France, pickled
herrings in Holland, potatoes roasted on the hearth in Ireland,
pumpernickel and sourkrout in Germany, anise-seed, garlic, and olla
podrida in Spain, birds'-nest, sharks' fins, and meat furnished by the
rat's own brethren in China, caviare and candles with the Russians,
roast-beef and ale in England, and pork-and-beans and peanuts with the
people of a certain division of North America.
Drawing the line at a particular point in the rats' endeavors to obtain
"belly timber," as Sancho puts it, is an obsolete custom with them, for
they devour putrid carrion, and human flesh, too, comes within this
category, a further account of which will be found in the course of the
next chapter.
VII.--FEROCITY.
The rat is dangerously ferocious when aroused, and is capable of being
wrought up to a pitch of white heat fury. If he should be caught, his
tail cut, his hair burnt, or if he should be wounded in any other way,
but not sufficiently to weaken his system or momentary capacity, and he
is then let loose, he will, through sheer madness and pure "cussedness,"
hunt up, fight, and overpower his brethren individually, or else put
them to flight in a body, without much ado. In fact, when he is worked
up to this state, he wouldn't hesitate for a moment to attack an entire
army of rats, or of other far bigger and more terrible objects. In many
cases like this, rats have often obligingly rid premises of their own
kind. If the tortured or maimed rat is in a weak condition afterwards,
he will be promptly overpowered by the other members of the rat
community upon general principles.
We are often regaled in the newspapers with "brutally frank" accounts of
people leaving their babies alone at home, and, upon returning, finding
them frightfully lacerated by rats, slowly and reluctantly escaping from
the scene. In like manner, they have become bold enough to attack
solitary invalids in houses, who had work enough to defend themselves
from, and to drive off, these ferocious little beasts, driven on by
hunger like the true wolves of the wilderness.
Living or dead, man is bound to furnish food for the rat; and in
church-yards, where, ghoul-like, they choose the night as their time of
appearing, they demolish the skeletons, littering the ground with
remnants of the white, shining bones.
VIII.--RATS IN BREWERIES, SLAUGHTER-HOUSES, MARKETS, STABLES, AND
BARN-YARDS.
The writer, in the course of his many rat-hunting expeditions, has had
occasion to observe the rats in the lower cellars of many large New York
breweries, where beer was about all they could get to live on. The sage
old rodents, I observed, that had become accustomed to this diet--and
had noted scientifically its queer effects in large doses on the rat
system--indulged in a moderate way, and became aged, good-natured, and
fat, like some jovial, bald-headed old merchant of the human type. The
young rats, however, that had been recruited from the neighboring
houses, would proceed immediately to paint a limited part of the town
quite crimson with much hilariousness and quantities of beer, after
which they could be killed or caught without much bother, lying around
through the passage-ways in a beastly intoxicated state. Here they lay,
squealing faintly, and without concern, on their backs. We may find in
this, if we care to look for it, a really valuable temperance lesson;
for, when the rodents imbibed with moderation, they were of a strong and
healthy race, and greatly looked up to in the gnawing community; but,
when they quaffed too heavily, they became poets, and cared not for the
affairs of this small earth, whereupon they were ignobly killed with a
club by some base son of man. In slaughter-houses, they become so
unconscious after having gorged themselves with a hearty dinner of hot
blood and other warm offal, that hundreds of them could be picked up and
massacred with but very faint resistance on the otherwise cautious rat's
part.