THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT 



various diseases, and distributes them throughout 

 human dwellings, and even on his foodstuffs. Man 

 has warred from time immemorial on rats and mice. 

 He has called in the aid of the inventor, the chemist, 

 the bacteriologist, and the cat, but he has failed as 

 lamentably as in his campaign against insects. With 

 all his efforts he can barely keep them in check. 

 Should he relax his pressure for a single year they 

 would overwhelm him. 



Surely Nature has not so ordered it that man should 

 be overthrown by the rat and mouse. Assuredly not. 

 Nature has provided a host of enemies to keep these 

 rapidly breeding rodents in check. Carnivorous 

 animals, both large and small, prey constantly on them, 

 but unfortunately the majority of these animals, when 

 in the vicinity of man, attack and destroy his stock 

 animals and poultry, and have to be exterminated. 

 The destruction of these natural checks results in an 

 increase of rats and mice with a correspondingly 

 large amount of damage to produce, pasturage, and 

 forests. Snakes prey largely on rats and mice, but 

 many of these reptiles are venomous and cannot be 

 tolerated in our neighbourhood. 



Again we are obliged to invoke the services of the 

 bird to save us. Hawks and owls are the principal 

 enemies of the rapidly breeding rat and mouse tribe. 

 The hawk by day and the owl by night wage a steady, 

 unceasing war upon them. Without the hawk and 

 owl, man would be in a sorry plight indeed. Yet man 

 is so dominated by prejudice, false beliefs, and supersti- 

 tions in regard to owls and hawks that he continues 



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