PARTRIDGES AND RATS
A friend' asked me last week how I thought he might protect a partridge's nest to which his attention had been called by the presence of a rat. The rat was in the act of taking away an egg. The only thing I could suggest was that the eggs should be lifted and placed under a broody hen, if one could be found, for no amount of chasing and clattering about with a stick will put a rat off once it has found a nest. Rats search the ground for such titbits and if they are frightened off they simply bide their time and return when all is quiet. There is nothing to be done about it. This happened to the eggs of the partridge before they could be gathered. I imagine the rats stored them for consumption when they felt like it, as they often do. Tragedies of this sort are repeated over and over again in nature. Losses are heavy, for stoats, jays, grey squirrels and rats live at the expense of the partridge or the thrush's brood.
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