MAMMALS 1 2 feet from the ground. There was no nest. The following localities were given in a letter from the late Dr. Babington to the writer in 1885 : * Bull's Wood, Cockfield (dormice, as well as many of their nests containing young, found during September about two years ago), Rougham, Thurston, Beyton, Bradfield St. George and Rush brook. Not at all uncom- mon in the neighbourhood.' The late Dr. Bree, in a letter to Mr. H. Laver of Colches- ter, dated from Long Melford, Suffolk, says : 'The dormouse is well known about here . . , Two " sleepers " were quite recently caught by a man while at work in a large wood near Lavenham.' As regards the Ips- wich district, Mr. H. Miller of that town has on more than one occasion during entomo- logical excursions met with dormice in the woods at Belstead and Bentley, and once possessed a specimen which had been found in its nest near the Gold Road in the parish of Stoke, a suburb or hamlet of Ipswich. As recently as the year 1899 he found a pair of dormice and their nest in the Old Hall Wood, Belstead. 24. Brown Rat. Mus decumanusy Pallas. In consequence of the systematic destruc- tion of its natural enemies by gamekeepers this noxious and omnivorous animal has be- come excessively abundant. During the sum- mer great numbers of rats live out in the marshes, burrowing into the sides of ditches and also into the river ' walls,' sometimes to such an extent as to endanger their stability. Undermined and weakened by the numerous excavations of the rats and moles, these em- bankments can no longer resist the weight and pressure of the water, and giving way before the incoming tide occasion extensive floods. The woods too harbour great quan- tities of these animals, which multiply there to an alarming extent, feasting upon the maize and other food intended for the phea- sants. Towards winter they make their way to farm premises, corn stacks and buildings, where they make great havoc among farm produce of various sorts, and especially later on among the early broods of ducklings and chickens, carrying off at times a whole brood in a single night. So numerous have they become that in many districts the ratcatcher with his dogs and ferrets can no longer keep them in check, and the farmers have for years past been forced to resort to the objec- tionable practice of laying down poison, whereby unfortunately not only the rats are destroyed, but also those very creatures which if more numerous would far more efiFectually keep down the numbers of these rodents. It is more than probable that many weasels, stoats, owls and other useful ratcatchers find and devour the poisoned rats with fatal results to themselves. Even on the sea coasts colo- nies of rats establish themselves among the faggots sunk in the shingle as a protection to the beach. The sea itself provides them with a constant supply of food, such as shell- fish, dead fish, Crustacea and other marine animals, and occasionally corn and other stores yashed ashore from wrecks. On some parts of the coast this is supplemented in spring and summer by the eggs and young of terns, ringed plovers and other birds. Some years ago after the wreck of a herring boat the beach between Sizewell and Dunwich was for a long distance strewn with these fish, many' of which were carried by rats a long distance across the marshes to an ancient isolated building in ruins known as the ' Chapel,' ' and were there found stored in their holes under the crumbling walls. Mr. Southwell informs me that on Lowestoft pier he has seen the rats seize and run off with the bait lying by the side of the anglers from the pier. The brown rat varies a good deal in size, and where food is plentiful will attain to dimensions far exceeding those of ordinary individuals. Some big rats have been met with in this county, and curiously enough the two heaviest examples of which I have come across any record were caught in the same parish (Tunstall). One of these, which weighed 21 ounces, was recorded by Mr. J. D. Jackson in the Field of 13 August 1 88 1. The other, weighing 23 ounces, was killed on the Dunningworth Hall farm by Mr. R. A. Girling. The occurrence was noted in the same publication under date 10 February 1883. These weights however have in several instances been exceeded, notably in the Case of a specimen mentioned in the Field of 9 January 1897, which is stated to have weighed 2| lb. In a species $0 abundant as M. decumanus occasional de- viation from the normal colouring would naturally be expected. Several rather striking varieties have occurred in this county. In the Zoologist for ^889, p. 144, a fawn coloured specimen, white underneath and with pink eyes, is recorded by Mr. E. W. Gunn of Ipswich as having been trapped at Holbrook. In January 1890 a pied rat, brown and white, which had been killed at the Burnt- house farm, Farnham, was seen by the writer. Several others, more or less marked with
- This ruin is all that now remains of the abbey
of Premonstratensian canons, founded in 1182. See Hist, of Suffolk, Rev. J. J. Raven, D.D., p. 87. 227
