334 Rats and the Balance of N attire. [Sess. 



reindeer as is the killing of hawks and weasels in this country 

 for the preservation of game. 



In traversing the fjelds or mountain plateaux with pointers 

 for ryper — the native grouse — I found them exceedingly 

 scarce, and on hundreds of thousands of acres poor sport is 

 to be had. And why ? Simply because their eggs are 

 destroyed by predatory birds, and hawks are ever hovering 

 in the air ready to make a quarry. A sportsman with good 

 dogs may kill from ten to twenty brace in a day, but if game 

 preservation was better understood, a hundred brace might 

 easily be acquired. Those who have sailed round the west 

 coast of Norway must have been struck with the beautiful 

 eider-ducks which are to be seen everywhere in the fjords. 

 After a week's sailing last summer in a small boat round the 

 islands of Hitteren, Scarso, Ertvaago, and others, during the 

 breeding season, I was unable to find the eggs of the birds 

 referred to, though a party of us went frequently on shore and 

 made a diligent search. Of course the reason was not far to 

 seek, but curiosity prompted me to ask some of the peasant- 

 farmers on the coast, who replied that " the crows ate them all." 

 It is easy to see how, if hoodie-crows and hawks were killed 

 down to within reasonable limits, ryper, which contributes so 

 largely to the food-supplies of the nation, and eider-ducks, 

 from which that valuable commercial product, eider-down, 

 is obtained, would be found in far greater abundance. This 

 certainly does not comport with a statement made by our 

 fellow-member, Mr Scot Skirving, to a Select Committee of 

 the House of Commons in 1873, that "no bird would be a 

 nuisance if man had not interfered with them." 



Eeverting to the rat pest, most of the writers in the 

 ' Scotsman ' assert that the increase of rats is due to game- 

 keepers exterminating birds of prey. This I deny, because, 

 as I have shown, the only birds of prey that can destroy rats 

 to any extent are those which are nocturnal in their habits, 

 and which are confined to the owl species. Assuming that 

 owls are destructive to rats, — which I shall subsequently 

 question, — have they been exterminated by gamekeepers ? 

 My answer is, they have not. I was a gamekeeper for nearly 

 twenty years, and never destroyed owls as vermin. I am 

 acquainted with sportsmen all over England and Scotland, 



