54 OUTDOOR LIFE IN ENGLAND 



gesture betokens an intense love of freedom. Such 

 an instrument of torture as a squirrel's cage is, 

 too ! I wish with all my heart that there were 

 no such things as cages for birds or animals. 

 Let them be tamed by all means, where it is 

 possible to do so without permanent deprivation 

 of freedom. ' Live, and let live,' should be the 

 motto of every lover of Nature. Rats and mice 

 and such-like vermin must, of course, be kept 

 under, or we ourselves should be nowhere. I 

 am afraid that, with respect to rats, I hold them 

 in such intense abhorrence as to show them but 

 scant mercy. They interest, though they sicken 

 me. It has frequently been my ill-fortune to 

 reside in districts where they have been unusually 

 numerous. Whilst professing the most sincere 

 love for birds and beasts generally, I can never 

 resist killing a rat or a snake, and in so doing 

 I consider that I am rendering a public service, 

 especially if the snake be of a poisonous kind. 

 And the bite of a rat is at times wellnigh as 

 harmful as that of an adder, for although its effects 

 may not be so rapidly manifested, they are fre- 

 quently most serious. Much, of course, depends 

 upon the health and habits of the person bitten, 

 as also upon the substance upon which the rat 

 may have been previously feeding. Some two 

 or three instances of blood-poisoning from the 

 bite of a rat have come to my knowledge during 

 the past few years. Two of these cases nearly 

 proved fatal, In one instance a farmer, observing 



