A BOOM IN ANIMAL LIFE 



IN the Field of February 22d 1896, the following 

 letter appeared from Sir R. Payne - Gallwey : 

 ' SIR, I send you a cutting from the Eastern 

 Morning News of Feb. 10 which accurately describes 

 the extraordinary invasion of rats that has recently 

 invested ' Reed's Island/ in the estuary of the 

 Humber. This island consists, or rather did consist, 

 of 600 acres of very rich and valuable land (grass 

 and clover), formerly reclaimed from the sea. Four 

 or five years ago between 2000 and 3000 sheep and 

 cattle might be seen grazing on its then extremely 

 verdant surface. Now there exists scarce sufficient 

 pasture to feed one rabbit, and the entire island is 

 as brown and rough as a ploughed field from the 

 excavated earth thrown out of their burrows by the, 

 I may safely write, millions of rats. The island is 

 throughout as flat as a billiard-table, and is sur- 

 rounded by earthen banks about 10 ft. in height 



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