330 Rats and tJie Balance of Nature. [Sess. 



and weasels — and, let me add, rats — so mucli as rabbit- 

 trapping. Those who have watched the habits of weasels 

 must have been struck with the alacrity with which they 

 run into one hole and make their appearance at another 

 a considerable distance off. As they are not suspicious like 

 rats, they overrun traps without dread of danger, and as a 

 consequence become decimated in those parts of the country 

 where rabbit - trapping is practised. The result is that a 

 certain class of naturalists denounce gamekeepers as ignorant, 

 who know a great deal more of practical natural history than 

 those who denounce them. One thing must seem clear, that 

 the trapping of rabbits and the destruction of weasels are 

 identical, and I ask in all seriousness, Has trapping to be 

 abolished in the interests of weasels ? I answer, IS.0 \ 



I know no subject upon which more nonsense is apt to 

 be written than that of natural history. Let a man once 

 get it into his head that he is a naturalist, and he seems 

 to regard himself as licensed to revel in nonsensical specula- 

 tion and su]3erstitious folly. Let no one say that this is 

 either uncharitable or exaggerated in view of a letter which 

 appeared recently in the ' Scotsman,' wherein, with the 

 greatest amount of sincerity, it is stated as an established 

 fact that by the playing of bagpipes the rat plague can be 

 " effectually overcome." Seeing that this letter is signed by 

 " an old Highland minister," it may comport with Highland 

 theology, but I submit that it is at variance with the facts 

 of natural history. 



As I have no desire unnecessarily to prolong this paper, I 

 will now come to that theory which has been so much ad- 

 vanced by writers, some of them members of this Society. I 

 refer to the alleged disturbance of those laws in the animal 

 kingdom whereby the balance of nature is subverted by the 

 destruction of vermin by gamekeepers and others. I need not 

 recapitulate here what I recently wrote to the ' Scotsman,' 

 but let a few words suffice. 



Twenty years ago, on the Craigmillar property, game was 

 strictly preserved, and vermin, including rats, trapped down 

 with scrupulous care. Circumstances arose when it was deemed 

 desirable to stop preserving. The result has been that vermin 

 has increased, and so have rats. Being a thickly populated 



