Plague of Rats.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 266, 7 October 1884, Page 2

Plague of Rats.

The plague of vats reported by telegraph from Nelson has been expert, enced also ai Ficton, where a late visitor, says a gentleman, told him he had killed nearly a hundred whilst; out for au afternoon stroll, attended by three fox terriers. The rats are quite a distinct- breed from those infesting ihia and other waterside towns^ being a much smaller animal, with almost blank skins. They seem to be identical with the indigenous animal which has long since been supposed to be extinct m many parts of the colony, owing, it is said, to the hostilities of the Norwegian invader, whose depredations m this town and district are at times most annoying. The rats at Picton . "seem to come dowu from the hills, and. are said to do so only when very.seyere weather is experienced, being probably starved out by their ordinary food supplies getting covered up by snow. They do not effect the hou-es of the settlers, but content themselves m the fields, where they do a lot of damage to young crops, the succulent tops of which :they seem very partial to.