" Johnston, who has noticed so many odd superstitions, tells us that the tuberous ground-nut (Bunium flexuosum), which has various nicknames, such as "lousy," "loozie," or "lucie arnut," is dug up by children who eat the roots, "but they are hindered from indulging to excess by a cherished belief that the luxury tends to generate vermin in the head."

A feeble return, however, and brief: in the pauses of talk, misgiving swarmed in his mind, like the leaping vermin of last night.

The consular house was soon crammed with dirty Jews, whose vermin and filth rendered the house untenantable, until it had undergone a thorough repair and cleansing.

All my ancestors were noted for their love of sport, their keen sense of humour, and hatred of vermin.

The subtill vermin, creeping closely* neare, Did in his drinke shed poyson privilie; Which, through his entrailes spredding diversly, Made him to swell, that nigh his bowells brust, And him enforst to yeeld the victorie, That did so much in his owne greatnesse trust.

He lists the weeds and blights, the pests and the vermin against which the farmer must contend.

On the other hand, vermin and venomous animals are not so common as in India.

He is clever at hunting, having an excellent nose, is a good vermin-killer, and a most faithful watch, guard, and companion.

These qualities endear the Schipperke as a canine companion, with a quaint and lovable character; and he is also a capital vermin dog.

Dachshunds hunt well in a pack, and, though it is not their recognised vocation, they can be successfully used on hare, on fox, and any form of vermin that wears a furry coat.

The badger is also hunted by Dachshunds above ground, usually in the mountainous parts of Germany, and in the growing crops of maize, on the lower slopes, where the vermin work terrible havoc in the evening.

There can hardly have been a time since the period of the Norman Conquest when the small earth dogs which we now call terriers were not known in these islands and used by sporting men as assistants in the chase, and by husbandmen for the killing of obnoxious vermin.

They do not perhaps possess the outward beauty and distinction of type which would justify their being brought into general notice, but as workers they retain all the fire and verve that are required in dogs that are expected to encounter such vicious vermin as the badger and the fox.

In various places along its course the river has long poles set across it; on these poles Tom Peregrine has placed traps for stoats, weasels, and other vermin.

In a hunting country where foxes occasionally find their way into vermin traps, Colonel Coulson's invention should be invaluable.

" He had evidently pursued game or vermin of some sort into the dense undergrowth of the wood, and in his haste had slipped and fallen over his gun, for the shot had just grazed his heart

Tom Peregrine, clad in his best Sunday homespun, passes along his well-worn track through the rough grass beyond the water, intent on visiting his vermin traps, or bent on some form of destruction,for he is never happy unless he is killing.

It is true we had no bugler, or standard-bearer, or piece of feather in the troop, or, indeed, any circumstance of war, save our revolvers and Sharpe's rifles, vermin and dirty shirts.

It seems strange to me that any good should be recognized in these children of despair, which have caused me more unhappiness than all the world's vermin beside.

"Two hundred ducats are not to be lost, especially when it is a matter of delivering the country from such vermin.

The plague of vermin in the trenches is one of the minor horrors of war.

Cranz speaks of "their filthy clothes swarming with vermin."

As a specimen of the language which is sometimes held on this subject, I subjoin the following paragraph from the Saturday Review, perhaps the most cynical or unsentimental journal in England: "There is a wailing for the dirt and vice and misery which must prevail in houses where seven or eight persons, of both sexes and all ages, are penned up together for the night in the one rickety, foul, vermin-hunted bed-room.

Rabbits have been put out of the pale of protection somewhat recently, I believe, and branded with the bad name of vermin; so that the tenant farmer may kill them on his occupation without leave or license from the landlord.

So does "Vermin Villa."