Cereal Thieves One of the present day's regulations concerning threshing
has a certain biological interest. Threshers are ordered to surround the stack in question with a wire, with the aim of destroying the rats and mice that are evicted. I noticed that among the few creatures that escaped were the harvest mice, the smallest of all our animals, and perhaps the most engaging. The damage they do is small in the bulk ; and they arc nowhere, I think, found in very great numbers. It was remarkable that, outside one stack, where several dogs were busy and eager, these atomics were entirely dis- regarded, as if they were an unworthy prey. In older days when the mice skedaddled at large from the dwindling stack it was a grim spectacle to watch the poultry kill—and eat—the mice. They were often more efficient even than the terriers. Hens can be very carnivorous. Even frogs arc not safe from them.
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