three employes of the Street Department rushed to Warren & Philip Streets to hunt a leak in the city’s trunkline sewer. Expertly they flipped off the manhole lid. Ten feet below, icy black water ...

The skull of a black rat (right) compared with a fairly complete skull of one of Timor's other extinct giant rats (left). The giant rat shown here isn't the biggest of the extinct rats ...

Norway rats, however, are commonly found on the ground, especially in sewer systems ... Brown rat droppings are dark brown and tapered at the ends, while black rat droppings are curved.

Brown rats are the undisputed winners of the real rat race ... street rats or sewer rats. It didn't take long for them to push aside the black rats that had likely arrived with Columbus and ...