FOREST TITHES 19 
dropped it, so that the latter might fetch it after he 
had gone. 
Rats do not, of course, frequent waste lands, since 
there would be nothing for them to feed on there ; 
but most of the cottagers who live on commons keep 
pigs and fowls. From one of these homesteads the 
rat was being carried to a wood-stack, where it could 
be consumed in peace. Determined foes to rats and 
mice are the weasels, also to frogs and some other 
small deer, and for doing man this good service he 
kills them or exports them where they are not wanted. 
It is true that stoats and weasels kill rabbits, but for 
one rabbit they will kill forty rats and mice. I only 
wish the whole of the family were more numerous ! 
Five years ago we had a great plague of mice in the 
woodland districts. The pests invaded the gardens 
of those who had large houses near the woods, cut 
down the flowers in the borders and dragged them 
into their holes, and nibbled the wall-fruit. In fact, 
the folks had to cast about to find measures for their 
destruction. When things were at their worst, weasels 
made their appearance whole families of weasels, 
just as the short-eared owls suddenly appeared during 
the more recent plague of voles, on the southern up- 
lands of Scotland, in large numbers. These owls have 
also remained and bred in the district, to the great 
