Mice in the Breeding-Room 21 



mice, which can make themselves troublesome in various ways if they once gain access to the 

 room. There is no such effective mouse-trap as a cat, but the cat is not wanted in the very place 

 where the mice are; if it clears the lower part of the house it does its duty very well, but it would 

 never do to have it hunting about in the neighbourhood of the bird-room. The most effectual 

 way of excluding mice is to nail strips of tin, bent at a right angle, on the floor and against the 

 skirting-board. Perseverance and good teeth will find a road through anything else, and it requires 

 but a small hole to admit a regiment in single file. See that the bottom of the door is protected 

 by a similar contrivance. Should there be no skirting-board, as is sometimes the case in old 

 rooms, a stout strip of wood must be nailed to the floor close to the wall, and a sharp look-out 

 kept for holes that they may be stopped up at once with Paris plaster or cement. Any holes in the 

 floor itself must be covered with tin, or a pair of sharp eyes will shortly pop up and take stock of 

 the premises, and a colony of eyes quickly follow. If, however, from one cause or another, such 

 as gaining an entrance by some means not suspected, mice do fairly take possession of the room, 

 summary ejection of the whole fraternity is better and more easy of accomplishment than tedious 

 operations with traps. Poisoning can be done without any risk of unpleasant results from the mice 

 dying in their holes, for if one or two should do so their bodies are only very small. If the floor be 

 well swept for two or three nights in succession and baited with a small heap of oatmeal, which 

 must ultimately be mixed with some vermin poison, the entire colony can be cleared out without 

 any trouble in one or two nights, when mice and poison should be buried. But if poisoning 

 be objected to, examine the room for holes and stop up all but one. On going into the room 

 at night with a light, the mice will at once make for this one loophole of escape, which can be 

 closed before even one has time to reach it ; for unless the cages are so placed that the mice 

 cannot by any possible means get into them, they will be found banqueting in the seed-hoppers in 

 numbers far exceeding what might be anticipated. If a large box have been previously placed on 

 the vacant side of the room, about an inch from the wall, every marauder will run behind it. 

 There need be no hurry to bring about the denouement, and every long tail must be beaten out of 

 cover ; not one will attempt to leave the shelter of the bo.x. A gentle squeeze, and that batch can 

 be swept up, the box replaced, the hole unstopped, and the operation repeated in an hour. There 

 will soon be no mice to squeeze. It is wholesale slaughter, but death is instantaneous and merciful. 

 Dirty cages, filthy little tracks in their frequented runs, soiled seed, and perhaps a dead bird or two, 

 are sufficient incentives to a massacre which need never occur again if the proper precautions are 

 then taken to prevent the ingress of these pests, whose instincts naturally lead them to such a 

 haven of plenty in the way of seed and other delicacies, for which the miis domesticus has a strong 

 predilection. 



We have referred to the cat as an effective mouse-trap. Some persons succeed in training 

 their cats in such a way that they are allowed free access to the bird-room, and never seem to 

 dream of meddling with the birds ; indeed, not a few turn puss into the room every night to 

 mount guard and protect the cages from the inroads of mice ; and where the cat has been brought 

 up to the work from kittenhood, it is astonishing how faithfully it will discharge its trust under 

 great temptation to do wrong. We cannot but think the practice is fraught with great danger, 

 and do not consider that a breeding-room containing valuable stock is the right place in which to 

 commence " happy family " experiments. We say so in justice to the claims of the birds, which 

 have no right to be exposed to such a risk. We know many very reliable animals of this kind ; 

 but our experience of cats is that they are cats, and that, under favourable conditions, the cat 

 nature will assert itself. It only has to do so once to entail disastrous consequences, and we 

 think that the chance of that once should not be allowed. Granted that puss sits down to watch 



