REPORT ON PLAGUE OF FIELD-VOLES IN SCOTLAND 131 



This field-vole is at all seasons a well-known inhabitant 

 of our pastures, and may be found at all heights from the 

 sea-level to near the summits of our highest hills. The 

 chairman of your Committee saw one in the autumn of 1891 

 at a height of 2000 feet on Ben Eibhinn, in Strath Ossian. 

 The attention of farmers and shepherds is only attracted to 

 it when circumstances have combined to cause an abnormal 

 increase in its numbers. One shepherd stated that when 

 as a boy he used to find a nest of voles he would " hap " 

 (protect) it, because it was thought rare. 



The field -vole usually produces three or four litters a 

 year, each consisting of from four to eight young, but in 

 some seasons they are even more prolific, the breeding season 

 is prolonged, young voles being observed from February to 

 November, and the litter containing as many as ten young. 

 Mr. Service of Maxwelltown, a local naturalist and careful 

 observer, mentioned in his evidence that he had observed 

 females simultaneously suckling young and in a pregnant 

 state. 



The present outbreak may be traced back to the year 

 1888, when the voles were observed to be increasing on the 

 farm of Glenkerry and others in Selkirkshire. In the 

 summer of 1889 the low-lying pastures near Closeburn, in 

 Dumfriesshire, were observed to be infested by enormous 

 numbers of voles, which remained there during 1890, and 

 disappeared in i 891, probably moving up to the hill pastures, 

 where at the time of vour Committee's visit they were 



swarming. 



On some of the hill farms this excessive increase was ob- 

 served as early as the autumn of 1890 ; elsewhere, however, 

 they attracted no attention till the spring of 1891. 



The districts principally affected are the hill pastures in 

 the north-west of Roxburghshire, the south of the counties 

 of Selkirk, Peebles, and Lanark, and the northern part of 

 Dumfries from Eskdalemuir by Moffat to Thornhill. The 

 voles have also appeared in great numbers in the parishes of 

 Dairy and Carsphairn, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. 



Your local inspector, Mr. R. F. Dudgeon, has already in- 

 formed you that at the date of his report he estimated that 

 in Roxburghshire 30,000 to 40,000 acres had been affected, 



