PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 131 
right across the doorway, that they would run right round 
the verandah and we were allowed to sleep in peace. This 
lasted for some four weeks. By this time everything they 
could possibly devour had gone. We then noticed a slight 
falling off in their numbers, and they gradually got less 
and less, until not one remained. They appeared to work 
from due north to south, clearing up everything as they 
went. In describing them, I may say they were not more 
than half the size of the ordinary everyday rat, and they 
had a very sharp, quick, active way with them, and were 
very cunning. They were also very savage, and could 
bite very hard. The head appeared more like that of a fox 
on a small scale. The tail stood straight up in the air and 
at the tip was distinctly bushy, but the bushiness did not 
extend far down the tail, and only appeared to sprout out 
from the tip. During the rest of my term (11 years) at 
the Alice, they never appeared again, and did not seem to 
have left any progeny behind. Some time after, we cer- 
tainly had a mild mice plague, and also in a dry season we 
had an extraordinary large number of water-hens. I should 
say there were thousands, passing for some days. They 
travelled in an opposite direction altogether, going from 
‘east to west, and were very destructive during their stay. 
Considering the scarcity of water that particular year, it 
was quite a unique occurrence.”’ 
The 1903-1905 Mouse Visitatvon.—Lucas and Le Souef in 
‘“*The Animals of Australia’’ (p. 21), mention that ‘‘sud- 
den hordes of rats and mice also appear in the interior. 
Collecting in multitudes, they migrate over great distances, 
are alarmingly destructive to the crops and stores of the 
settlers, wherever these lie in their course, and are followed 
by pursuers, which may be nearly as troublesome as the 
rodents themselves.’’ They then give an extract from the 
Sydney Daily Telegraph of Oct. 9th, 1905, from which it 
