Nutria on the Norfolk Broads In reference to the nutria
that are causing some slight alarm on the Norfolk Broads, an interesting account of the animal reaches me from a rancher in Paraguay, that most Paradical country. He says that nutria abounded in every lake and marsh in the Argentine "Mesopotamia," ex- cept where alligators were found ; but the fur-hunters almost exterminated the wild animals. They are, however, farmed, like silver foxes, on a large scale. One farm may keep as many as 4,000. They are cheap to feed and take kindly to domesticity. It was discovered not so long ago that the apparent inferiority of the tame to the wild pelt was due to the lack of a comb. The nutria damaged their claws on wire enclosures. Their one vice in domesticity seems to be idleness! This admirer of the nutria, who has worked to protect it in Paraguay, expresses the hope that _it will not be exterminated in England: " Its numbers are easily con- trolled, and it will never become a menace like the musk-rat." My correspondent, Mr. Martin, concludes: " Very soon I shall be seeing my own nutrias, and I hope they have increased."
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