upon it. I ventured to suggest adulteration to the chemist, but

he pooh-poohed the idea ; and I suppose he was right, for one

wandered into niv neighbour’s garden, and “caught ” and killed

his cat : at least it looked very much like it. One case was too

remarkable to leave unrecorded. I have seen it stated that the

females of various animals, when with young, are exempt from

the usual deadly consequences of a snake’s bite. I do not know

if this be true; and the following instance is not altogether to the

point, as the poison from a snake’s bite affects the system

differently from that taken internally. Some sixteen months

ago, a pair of mice discovered a sack of Indian millet in a spare

but very full bed-room, and comfortably settled down. Before

long, I detected the attack on the seed (which I removed), laid

down poison, and killed the male. The female continued to live

in the room, and, having nothing else to feed upon, took the

poison freely, so freely that I took an interest in the case and let

her have her fill. In due course she built a nest of scraps of

paper, on a table, under a cloth (up which she used to climb)

which covered various articles on the table. For as long as I

dared, I spared the young, in the hopes of being able to catch the

mother, still regularly feeding her with poison, spread as usual

on thin bread and butter. Eventually I made a sudden raid on

the nest, killed all the young, but missed the mother who had

been in the nest. Shortly afterwards, she turned up in the

dining-room, and established herself behind a book-case ; and

there she remained for several weeks, for nearly three months I

think, living on the seed scattered by the birds and occasional

doses of poison. Then the birds were removed to their summer

quarters in the garden, the room was “ turned out,” and the

mouse killed. It was sickly, having a large growth on the neck,

but was still alive although it must have eaten several packets of

Battle’s Vermin Killer, which I understand is principally com¬

posed of strychnine.


In the house I have been able to control the mice ; but in

the garden I must confess that, this year for the first time, I have

been discomfited, and am in despair. During the hard weather

in February, I suppose they ran short of food, for I caught a few

in break-back traps. On two occasions, when I inspected the

traps in the morning, I found a mouse in a trap which, had had

its whole skull and brains devoured by the survivors. Mice that

would do this would not hesitate to devour young birds in the

nest, and even small adults in sleeping shelters. I have no rats

here, nor any but the common house mouse, Mus musculus.



