This species of rat has been known but for a few years, and is not
mentioned by any naturalist except M. Brisson, who calls it the Rat of
the Woods, but as it bears a greater resemblance to the field-mouse, in
colour and habitudes, than to the rat, I have termed it the Surmulot,
or large Field-mouse. This animal is more strong and mischievous than
the rat; it has reddish hair, long naked tail, the backbone is arched
like that of a squirrel, its body is much thicker, and it has whiskers
like a cat. It is but a few years since this species has been spread
in the neighbourhood of Paris; from whence they came is not known, but
they have multiplied prodigiously, which is not wonderful when it is
considered that they produce from twelve to nineteen young ones at a
time. They were first discovered at Chantilly, Marly, and Versailles.
From M. le Roi I received a great number of them both alive and dead,
and he also favoured me by communicating the remarks he had made upon
this new species. The males are larger, stronger, and more mischievous
than the females. When pursued or endeavoured to be taken, they turn
and bite the stick or hand which touches them: their bite is sharp and
dangerous, for it is immediately followed by a considerable swelling,
and the wound, though small, does not soon heal. They bring forth three
times in a year, so that two individuals may produce 36 in twelve
months. Some of the females which I received were with young, and as
I kept them in cages, two or three days before they brought forth I
observed them busily gnawing the wood of their cages and putting the
pieces into a kind of order, making beds for their little ones.
The surmulot, in some of its habits, resembles the water-rat. Though
they take up their residences anywhere, they seem to prefer the banks
by the water; the dogs also chase them with the same furious eagerness
as they do the water-rat. When pursued, and they can equally take to
the water, or shelter themselves in a thorny thicket, they prefer the
former, plunge in without dread, and swim with great facility. This
particularly happens when they cannot regain their burrows, for, like
the field-mouse, they dig holes in the earth, or occupy those made by
rabbits. They may also be taken by means of ferrets, who pursue them
into their hole with the same ardour as they do the rabbit. These
animals pass the summer in the country; they live principally on
fruits or grain, yet are carnivorous, devouring young hares, rabbits,
partridges, and other birds, and when they get into a hen-roost they
destroy, like the polecat, more than they can eat. About November the
females and the young ones quit the fields, and proceed in troops to
barns, where they commit infinite havock, by destroying the straw,
consuming the grain, and infecting every thing with their ordure. The
old males remain in the fields each in his respective hole, where they
accumulate acorns, beech-mast, &c. filling it to the very edge, and
remaining themselves at the bottom. They do not become torpid in the
winter, like the dormouse, but come out of their holes every fine day.
Those which reside in barns drive away all the mice and rats; and it
has even been remarked, that the common rats are less frequent in the
environs of Paris since the surmulot became so numerous.