The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



NO. 53] 1905 [JANUARY 



ON THE VOLE AND SHREW OF THE 

 ORKNEY ISLANDS. 



By WM. EAGLE CLARKE. 

 With Report by Prof. O. CHARNOCK BRADLEY, M.B., C.M. 



IT is a somewhat remarkable fact that since 1848, when 

 Messrs. Baikie and Heddle published their excellent for 

 the date " Historia Naturalis Orcadensis," until the past 

 year, 1904, no naturalist seems to have paid any attention 

 to either the Vole or the Shrew inhabiting the Orkney 

 Islands. The consequence is that the misleading pardon- 

 ably misleading, it should be said statements of these 

 authors regarding the specific identity of these Orcadian 

 mammals have been unfortunately accepted by and repeated 

 in all the subsequent writings on the subject with which I am 

 acquainted. 



As regards the Vole, in the " Zoologist " for July 1 904 

 (pp. 241-246), Mr. J. G. Millais astonished British naturalists 

 by describing the Orcadian Vole as a species new to science 

 under the name of Microtus orcadensis, and as peculiar to 

 the Archipelago. 1 To that date the Vole inhabiting the 



1 Mr. Millais has informed me, since the above was written, that he has 

 obtained this Vole in certain parts of Shetland. 



53 B 



