Kirkus评论

Everything you always wanted to know about Rattus norvegicus and its kin but were too squeamish to ask. Those whose skin crawls in the presence of rodents should be glad they don't live in southern India, where a single field or village can harbor thousands of rats and ratlike creatures, such as the bandicoot and gerbil, and where practiced rat-catchers can bring down 12,000 rodents a month, earning cash and eating the harvest to boot. So we learn from the good doctor Barnett (Zoology/Australian National Univ.), an English scientist who has been studying rats and their ways since WWII. In this solid, often engaging survey, he treats the two most widespread species (Rattus norvegicus and Rattus rattus) with tolerance, if not sympathy, observing that it is the human destruction of the environment that has allowed these opportunistic rodents-along with a few other more immediately useful species-to flourish. (Even so, he fully recognizes the role of rats in spreading such pestilential diseases as the bubonic plague and leptospirosis.) Barnett's narrative is particularly strong in aspects of life history, from the aggressiveness of male rats (when two fight, he notes, "during attack and boxing, both rats scream and whistle, but, when one approaches or threatens' another, only the animal approached sounds off") to the intelligence of the creature. Those who take a less sympathetic view will be interested in Barnett's discussion of the difficulties attendant in trapping rats on their accustomed ground, for, he observes, the animals exhibit "neophobia," or "the avoidance of a strange object in a familiar place," even as they show an equally strong interest in exploring the new. Regardless of their attitude toward rats, readers with an interest in these ever-so-common creatures will find Barnett's overview of much use.