COUNTRY NEWS AND NOTES.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12849, 6 July 1907, Page 12

COUNTRY NEWS AND NOTES.

riiOTECTED PESTS

(speciilly written for "the press."^ (By Canterbury.) I should like to know why hawks, stoate, weasels, opossums and such like vermin are protected. Is it that game of all sorts shall be quito eradicated from the country, or that in their spare moments, when they cannot find a more tasty morsel, they may kill a few rabbit* ? Aβ far us stoats or weaeels are concerned, I have just seen a hen roost which has been subject to one of their visitations. Thirty-seven dead fowls eeenis a pretty good night's work for these depredators, and this is not by any means an isolated occurrence. Stoats aro rapidly increasing in number, and in districts not overrun with rabbits the only way to avoid serious lose will be to offer head-money in a sufficient sum to make it worth a man's time to trap them. I have seen one of these little pests tearing at the neck of a dead lamb wiiieh was still warm, but I cannot say that he killed it, for i did not see him in the act of so doing. A stoat hunte for warm blood, so I think the tfhancee are tluit- he was guilty.

Perhaps hawks do more mischief than any other vermin. They can get about quicker, and a weakly lamb or leveret here, and a chick or duckling there, soon make up a total of harm, which will outweigh, ten times over, any possible good that they can do. They have an instinct of perseverance too, which makes mutters worse. Last summer I knew of a grey duck's nest containing eight eggs. A budding poacher, aged seventeen, came along and shot the old bird, as she roso from the nest, which luckily ho did not notice. I heard of his exploit that evening, and the eggs were cold, but on the chance of their not being spoiled, I put them under a hen and every one hatched out. They were restless little beggars, constantly escaping from tho safety of their pen, and making for a small pond, just outsklo the garden hedge. The hawks soon found them out, and were always hovering round. Twenty-seven wore shot, but in spite of all this gentle persuasion, they still came, and in the end took five out of the eight ducklings. Opossums are much more numerous in Canterbury than is generally suppoeod, and from tho fade that have corn© to my knowledge, I think that they will 6oon become a pest. toy reason of their nocturnal habits, they may increase and multiply unnoticed, and our poor unspeakable rabbit bears the blaino for many of their misdoings. Recently, when walkin" with a frind in his orchard, ho remarKed, " How tho rabbits are barking these appio trees; 1 must set conic trap. but look at theso young ho continued, '"surely rabbits could , not reach those- branches, six feet from the ground; what has done, this?" I suggested kalcas, of which a fow still survive in some bush near at hand. But on looking closely we found the merits of several small teeth, quite different from tho largo distinct markings 01 a rabbit's incisors. We wero puzzlftl l . My friend said, " Well, we had a new patent blight to blacken tho gums, and now we have an unknown blighter to hark the arx&tfc,' , ancl Wβ deft dt ay that. How*ver, he 6et his Tabbit traps, ami within a week ekven opossums had) allowed their uncon6idered footsteps to stray therein. In another instance fate overtook the evil-door with a more sudden -and. A certain man put strychnine- in some apples, and arranged them in his g-arden for tho rabbits and blackbirds. 1 fancy this i.s quite illegal, if not, it should bo, for a child might easily pick one up. Bβ this as it may, sorveral opossums were included in the general gathering next morning. In neither of these oases had tho exielonce of opossums in the neighbourhood been 8113----pected. Thirdly, and lastly, the Mayor of a town in Canterbury had his garden ravaged, and know that opossums did the damage, and so he put tho laws of protection in hi;i pocket, and conceived entanglemcnte for their especial benefit, with which ho caught more than twenty—and made a rug.

■ How far do animals reason? Tho anin/als in question this time are rabbits. I attempt no explanation., but simply relate an incident that I witnessed myself. Phosphorised pollard hnd been laid down for the consumption of the rabbits in a certain field. The poison had Leon put down in little heaps, I suppose, so that "Brer Rabbit" should get a good mouthful at a time. On my way homo from giving delivery of "a link of sheep 1 wjs eating my sandwiches, under the shelter of .some gorse bushes. Anon a rabbit np'-eaml from a burrow, inspected the pV soned pollard near nt hand, witli ;i sT>spicioi!R air, a.r.d v.itho-ut partaking of any sat up and waited. Presently two more rabbits came cut, nnd would have inside a h«t»t f;ital but the old sentry drove thorn away. Morn rabbits came out. and the 6ame thine; hapiveuwl several times. Tho firstcomer could not hare boon greedy, for he <iid not eat. anil contented himself with driving the others away ns they appeared, and when I retired silently he was still on guard.