ANIMALS IN HARD TIMES

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13751, 26 April 1918, Page 3

ANIMALS IN HARD TIMES

THE EFFECTS OF DEARTH

There can be no doubt that many wild and half-wild animals are now feeling the effects of the food shortage in this country (writes a corespondent of the London Times. The disturbance of their petty economy is particularly noticeable in the case of the secretive creatures, far more numerous than the average citizens, which inhabit the rus in urbe or urbs in rure districts on the outskirts of London, and the great provincial cities. In the davs of peace and plenty these humble surburbans found it easy enough to procure a sufficiency of food, even if it were not the kind to which they were 'accustomed—they or their ancestors — in the natura lenvironment of the open countryside. The habits of the fox which used to be seen on and about the river between Putney and Hammersmith were always much of a mystery. He was the most surreptitious of foxes. But there is good evidence for believing that he would eat cheese, bread, and,, indeed, any scraps that might occur in a suburban dustbin. Probably such undomesticated creatures as this vanished fox, as the hen pheasant that once appeared at Lord's and the snipe that \\isited that Delphi of cricket and cricketers in a season of waterlogged wickets, would rejoice over the extraordinary variety and tastiness of town food, and, if they ever had an opportunity of talking things over with country cousins, would have scoffed at the plain, normal diet of country habitations It is true, as the old fable of fche town mouse and the country mouse shows, that they were subject to greater risks; not so much greater, after all, because of the dwindled powers of observation possessed by townsfolk and their custom of being fast asleep in bed in the grey dawn, which is the best time for seeing wild animals about on their (more or less) lawful occasions. Hut, so far as getting food was concerned, they did very well indeed in peace-time. And birds, for example, found residence in or near a town convenient in other respects, e.g., in the procuring of materials for nest-building; a fact brought home to the student of suburban wild-life by the instance of the wood-pigeon at Kew whose nest was entirely constructed of hair-pins.

Gulls, Rats, Cats. Some of the larger results of the world-wide food shortage, which naturalists are hinting at. rest so far on insufficient evidence. It is said on good authority that the flocks of migratory pigeons which devastate the farmers' fields were never so numerous or of such dimensions. They come over early in the winter from the Scandinavian countries, which are suffering worse than we are from food shortages. But it would be unscientific to suggest a relation of cause and effect between the'se two facts. The utilisation of small birds for food, which is now beginning—sparrows can bo bought for a penny each in some parts of the country would be a source

danirfir if it is continued. It would upset the intricately-balanced economy of animal and insect life. That certain wild and half-wild creatures are actually affected by the food shortage has been evident. In and about London gulls are much more numerous and pernicious in their foraging than they were before the war. They do not go back to the lower reaches of the Thames at night, as was then their custom, but even remain in fields and open spaces instead of sitting out on water. They actually visit suburban gardens before the owners are up and about. How and why they suffer from the food shortage is not easily answered.

The increased daring of the rate, is a change which must have been noticed by many residents in the suburbs. The relations between the brown and the black rats have not been affected. The hitter—the smaller but fiercer and far less tameable creatures, though traditional destestation of the "Hanoverians'' has made the contrary belief generally current—still inhabit the upper storeys of warehouses in the city and in the interminable dockland down tli3 river. The black rat never deserts the habitations of men. But his more intelligent and adaptable rival long ago took to the fields and hedgerows in search of a living which he earns with great astuteness, often showing almost human intelligence in his hlintitlff. His audacity and cunning have Hot;; !y in. creased. He will raid suburban dustbins in broad daylight, and enter dwellings where his presence was unknown before, or, at any rate, unobserved. He has ■always lx>en omnivorous—a proof of adaptability, for lie was not so designed—so that the fact that he now consume* unpleasant food (soap and even a piece of bread soaked in petrol. a diet once prescribed for Russian prisoners by Hindenburg) need not surprise us. It is probablv wrong to suppose that his numbers have largely increased in the last year. The truth is, no doubt, that be seems more common because, under the spur of hinder, he is mere obvious.

Rut the food shortage has made one of his old enemies much more dangerous Formerly the domestic cat left him unmolested in his open-air haunts or only attacked him voluntarily, so to speak. Hut a large number of cats have been turned out of doors to forage for themselves since milk became scanty and the "cat's meat man stopped coming round, and these h*ve been conscripted by hunger to hunt all sorts of small deer systematically. Parts of the country are now simply overrun by poaching cats, who have altogether abandoned their old habitations. In the Ijondon suburbs the discharged cat gets fewer birds than before (the blackbird is more wary than he was) and is forced to rely on rats as a staple diet. Man's pensioners and even Nature's are feeling the- stress cf the war.