Tackling a tide of rats

A contributor related the story of how he had hidden a shot duck while he and a companion followed the tide out, only to discover on their return that the bird had been picked clean — by rats. After this, they had a morning’s ratting with ferrets, clubs and tins — to which were attached stockings — and killed a considerable number of marshland rodents.

Few wildfowling clubs and individual fowlers pay sufficient attention to the presence of rats in and about the sea wall. Perhaps they do not think the rodents do much direct damage to sport, or that the problem is a difficult one best left to those whose job it is to keep sea walls in good repair. Every shooting man of any sort should regard the rat as one