What Are Vermin ?
A certain controversy has risen as to whether foxes, those still sacrosanct animals in the Midlands, ought to be called vermin. That priceless book, the Concise Oxford Dictionary quotes as examples foxes, weasels, rats, mice, moles, owls, fleas, bugs, lice and parasitic worms, and " vile persons." Incidentally, is the word always a plural? I suppose that in derivation the word means a worm. Foxes doubtless in the hilly counties of Wales and the Lakes, as in many districts of Australia, deserve any name of abuse ; and of late they seem to have increased their preference for young lambs. Poisoning is enjoying an increased and, here and there, an official vogue. In other districts the fox plays its part in the balance of nature that especially distinguishes this island. It quite certainly helps to reduce the quantity of rats which are by far the most destructive of vermin. But even rats are useful here and there. That excellent little monthly, the Estate Magazine, quotes an enquirer who says that rats are very popular with certain Cumberland miners, because they run away with screams from any roof that is in danger of falling, and that when they were killed off the mines became unbearable with hosts of cockroaches ; so you can never tell. But I cannot persuade myself to call owls vermin, whatever the best of dictionaries says ; and I am in favour of both weasels and foxes.
Previous page
