I am at a loss to answer the question at
the end of the letter which follows and deals with a reader's experiences while keeping ducks. Although I have heard many accounts of how rats take away eggs I cannot imagine how the rat in this case got the egg to the top of the post! 'I am reminded of the time when we kept ducklings,' remarks my correspondent, 'a brood of young ones who had tea with us in the garden every day and were greatly dis- tressed when the weather was bad. They searched for us everywhere and at last, in triumph, found a way by a glass door into the drawing-room and all marched in with joy. When they were just hatched (in an incu- bator), I used to keep them in a basket with flannel at night in my bedroom. One morn- ing one duck was missing and after searching the room I saw the little yellow tail just showing in my bedroom slipper, and the little truant had been happy and warm in the toe of it. Years ago a tame duckling was killed by our dog and my two sisters quarrelled about who loved it best. One said she did because she cried the longest, but the other one declared that she did because she cried the loudest! Sometimes rats used to take the eggs laid in a shed and one day I found an un- cracked egg balanced on the top of a post in the shed about seven feet high. How did the rat carry it up?'
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