1.   The black rat was far more of a town-dwelling species and dependent on human food.

2.   The omnivorous black rat consumes seeds, flowers and fruits, and many small animals.

3.   It seems clear that epidemics of the bubonic type became increasingly limited to the towns, which provided a better habitat for the plague-carrying black rat.

4.   A black rat crept out of the left sleeve and scuttled away in search of cheese.

5.   Well what type of rats, are they just big black rats?

6.   It moved quickly to other Mediterranean ports and the rest of Europe, spread by fleas from the black rat and people with pneumonic plague.

7.   Roof rats, also known as tree or black rats, are acrobatic rodents, sometimes nesting in the crowns of palm trees and using power lines as pathways.