"RATS AND MICE AND SUCH SMALL DEER."
(To THE EDITOR or THE " SPECTATOR."' SIR,—With reference to this letter in the Spectator of December 16th, you will remember what the immortal Mr. Jorrocks said when asked if his hunters went in harness—" Of course they do; I don't keep any cats that don't catch mice "- but my experience of the present-day cats, and I have had a great many, is that they don't catch mice, but are charming, beautiful, useless creatures, probably ruined, like the dogs, by shows, where beauty is the one qualification for prizes, and not character, as it should be. Consequently I have for some time given up cats as a means of keeping down rats and mice, and I find I can now keep them down by poison, not put down regularly, as they, especially rats, are so clever they get to know what poison is, and avoid it, but every few weeks, when they disappear completely for a time, and if I could only induce the farmers in my neighbourhood to do the same I believe rata would soon become as rare as the dodo.—
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