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The animal on the cover of Unit Test Frameworks is a Norway rat. Contrary to its name, the Norway rat’s origins are in Asia; over the centuries, it has spread throughout the world. It is often blamed for transmitting the Black Plague through Europe, but another species, the black rat, is actually responsible for this. The Norway rat’s appearance includes a brown or dark gray coat with a white or grayish underside, pointed ears, a long snout, and a scaly tail. It averages about 9 to 10 inches in length. It builds its own nest of twigs and leaves and is mostly nocturnal. It makes its habitat where food is most accessible and is typically found in cities, where it can root through garbage; near farms where it can forage through the harvest; and near the ocean, where it can eat fish, seaweed, and the like. It lives among large groups of other rats, usually with one male designated as the leader.

Along with the common house mouse, the Norway rat is the most popular animal model for scientific lab testing. (The lab rats are usually albino, however.) It is useful because its metabolism is very much like a human’s and the rats often are affected by the same diseases and sicknesses as humans.

Mary Brady was the production editor and the copyeditor ...

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