Rat Pit

Rat

From its origins in the swamps of Southeast Asia to its role in the medieval Black Death to its unshakeable niche in modern urban centers, the rat has incredible evolutionary advantages. Combining biology with history, and social commentary with firsthand experience, Rat dispels the myths and exposes the little-known facts about the ubiquitous rodent. Plague carrier, city vermin, and an out-and-out menace to modern man, the rat, like death and taxes, is a certain fixture in humankind's history. Rats are found in virtually every nook and cranny of the globe and their numbers are ever increasing. Rats are always adapting and they seem to outwit any attempts by humans to wipe them out. What makes the rat such a worthy adversary and how has it risen to the top of the animal kingdom? • Rats have been discovered living in meat lockers. The rats in there simply grew longer hair, fatter bodies, and nested in the carcasses they fed upon. • A female rat can, under good conditions, have well over 100,000 babies in her lifetime. • A rat can fall fifty feet onto pavement and skitter away unharmed. • A rat's jaws can exert a force more than twenty times as powerful as a human's. • The front side of a rat's incisors are as hard as some grades of steel. In Rat: How the World's Most Notorious Rodent Clawed Its Way to the Top, Jerry Langton explores the history, myth, physiology, habits, and psyche of the rat and even speculates on the future of the rat and how they might evolve over the next few hundred years.

Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-catcher, After 25 Years' Experience

Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-Catcher After 25 Years' Experience

Originally published in Manchester 1898, this rare early work on rat catching and control is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. READ COUNTRY BOOKS have now republished it in an affordable, high quality, modern edition, using the original text. Ike Matthews was a well known pest controller in his home town of Manchester over 100 years ago. His services were much in demand by local corporations, railway companies and merchants. This book details his extermination methods acquired over some twenty five years as a full time rat catcher. During this period he not only studied the different and the best methods of catching rats, but also took great interest in their ways and habits. The book's sixty four pages contain ten detailed chapters:- How to Clear Rats from Warehouses, Offices, Store Rooms etc. - Trapping. - Ferreting. - Drugs and Chemicals. - How to Keep and Work Ferrets. - Distemper in Ferrets. - Working Ferrets. - Suitable Dogs. - The Habits and Natural History of Rats. - Life of the Rat Catcher. - Hints on Rabbit Shooting. This is a fascinating read for all with an interest in the countryside and its wildlife. The pest controller and gamekeeper, both amateur and professional, will also find much of the information contained in these pages still useful and practical, even today. Many of the earliest sporting books, particularly those dating back to the 1800s, are now extremely scarce and very expensive. READ COUNTRY BOOKS are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.