AN AUSTRALIAN EXAMPLE.
In England, where excessive multiplication of anything is rare, we do not experience the plagues, as they may be called. which are almost commonplaces in some countries : most remarkable of all are the lemmings in the North of Europe and the mice in Australia, especially the latter. Quite 'suddenly and without apparent reason mice will appear . in migrant hordes, and they are. usually Consumed by a ravenous hunger. When travelling in the North of New South Wales, I was given some astounding examples of onslaughts on property by such hordes, which would enter isolated houses and devour, among other more pleasant morsels; the bedding, the chairs and the carpeta. A little later every sign of the animals would be as completely lost as if they had been piped into the heart of a German mountain. We have no appearances of this sort in England ; but we certainly have seasons when voles, rats, and the greater shrew appear., to be in unusual Multitude. It is a general belief in some country districts that rats always multiply after a very wet summer. Is thii a mere superstition ?
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