116 THE RING OF NATURE 



Continental examples, the latter often saving man 

 from the full rigour of its fecundity by swarming 

 from its native hills and in countless armies crossing 

 the country post haste to fling themselves into the 

 sea. It is one of the most marvellous of animal 

 instincts, though perhaps its explanation need not 

 be recondite. The lemmings eat as they go so 

 thoroughly that a reindeer or other grazing animal 

 that comes after them can only get a meal by 

 killing the animals and biting their stomachs out. 

 If the rodents worked the problem out by logic, 

 they would know that there was no turning back. 

 Sustenance has ever been found in front, and when 

 the sea is reached, who knows that it will not 

 yield food on the other side as many a river has 

 done ? 



Another rodent gives us the proverb, ' To breed 

 like rabbits.' Our friends in Australia know what 

 that means, and one often wonders why the rabbit 

 does not more often run to the proportions of a 

 plague in England. True, we heard not many 

 years ago of farms being given up in Essex, because 

 it was practically impossible to save the crops from 

 these wild and unprofitable grazers ; but in general 

 the farmer seems not to have the least idea of the 

 hundreds of pounds worth of damage done by 

 these creatures. He shoots at sight the stoat 

 or cat, either of which is worth a good many trusses 

 of hay to him alive, and when he finds a half-eaten 

 rabbit carcass he ' tut-tuts ' at ' that blessed fox ' 

 almost as though he had lost a lamb. 



