DISAPPEARANCE OF SHORT-TAILED FIELD VOLE 199 



instances : one on Sundhope, Yarrow, where Mr. Barrie, the 

 tenant, states there were 40 or 50 nests ; another on Whit- 

 rope, where 7 or 8 were seen ; another on Middlegill, 

 where there were a dozen nests ; and the last on Rivox, 

 where Mr. Scott, the tenant, mentions that 10 nests were 

 seen. The nests, as a rule, contained a less average 

 number of eggs than last year, though in instances 1 2 

 and 14 were seen. The young appear to have hatched 

 out well. But after the plague ceased, the supply of food 

 having failed, the old birds almost entirely disappeared 

 from the farms, and the greater number of the young died. 

 A number of full-feathered birds were also seen dead on 

 most of the farms ; but these may have been birds of an early 

 hatching. The survivors dispersed over the country, betak- 

 ing themselves to districts often a long way from the area of 

 the plague. Mr. Service informs us that a great number be- 

 took themselves to the game coverts, where they wrought 

 havoc among the young pheasants. Mr. Martin, Bowhill, 

 states that numbers appeared in the natural wood there 

 about the end of June and in Jul}', where they remained for 

 a while ; and that at the present time hardly a bird is to be 

 seen on the hills. And I lately flushed a pair on a heathery 

 fell near Portpatrick. I have not learned that this Owl had, 

 during its stay in the vole districts, any enemy, except per- 

 haps one. Mr. David Glcndinning, Howpasley, informs us 

 that on digging out the earth of a Fox on that farm which 

 had acquired a taste for lamb, there were found u 5 young 

 Foxes, j6 dead Short-eared Owls, and a number of Grouse, 

 Black-game, Partridges, Ducks, Curlew, Plover, Rats, Voles, 

 and Lambs." The circumstance of so many Owls being 

 found in the burrow prompted me to make full inquiry : and 

 Mr. Glendinning was good enough to inform me that the 

 burrow was an old one; that it was dug out on the 10th or 

 ilth of last May; that the Owls found inside consisted of 

 8 old birds and OS young of all but all unable to fly ; 



that some of the birds had been recently killed, while others 

 were in various stages of decay, ^<»nu' appearing t<> have been 

 killed a month bef< >re. 



The disappearance of the Y< >le has also led to an enormous 

 decrease in the numbers of the KestreL It is true, many 



