Omitted Pests From this April local Councils are entirely responsible
kir the suppres- sion of rats and mice and certain other enemies of food production. It is now against the law for anyone to allow a number of these on his premises. The pest officer and his servants, the rodent operators, are well established officials, and on the whole are singularly efficient. It is evidence of natural history knowledge that stoat and weasel (a most beneficent pair) are not included ; but the index expurgatorius might well be extended to include the grey squirrel. In some gardens scarcely a single bird's nest In the open is left unravaged nor a single peach uneaten, and after all the birds are of great value to the farmer and peaches are a form of food. The squirrels are in excessive numbers in a good many shires, and any creature (including the rook which I regard as a benefactor) does harm if the numbers are abnormally great.
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