i 3 o ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



To the President of the Board of Agriculture. 



SIR — The Committee appointed on 28th May 1892 to 

 inquire into and report upon the circumstances attending 

 the plague of voles in some of the southern counties of 

 Scotland, and to ascertain, either experimentally or otherwise 

 as they might determine, whether any, and, if so, what pre- 

 ventive and remedial measures could be adopted, having 

 conducted their inquiry to certain conclusions, beg to submit 

 to your Board the following Report. 



Before proceeding to the infected district your Com- 

 mittee received evidence from Major Craigie, Director of the 

 Intelligence Department of your Board, who stated that the 

 attention of his office had not been called to the existence of 

 the plague of voles until the winter 1891-92, when it had 

 been in existence for a considerable time. He laid before 

 us the reports of two of the local inspectors of your Board, 

 Mr. R. F. Dudgeon and Mr. J. I. Davidson, who, early in 

 1892, had been directed to inquire into the extent of the 

 outbreak in the counties affected. Your Committee also re- 

 ceived through the Office of Woods and Forests copies of 

 correspondence relating to former outbreaks of the kind in 

 England, and through the Foreign Office information of 

 similar plagues in other European countries. 



Hereafter, your Committee proceeded to the infested 

 district and received evidence from farmers, shepherds, land- 

 agents, gamekeepers, naturalists, and others at Howpasley 

 on 20th June, at Hawick on 21st June, at Moffat on 22nd 

 June, and at Thornhill on 23rd June. They also inspected 

 the farm of Howpasley, about 12 miles from Hawick, which 

 was said to have suffered as severely as any from the ravages 

 of voles. 



Nature and Origin of the Plague. 



The animal which by excessive multiplication has caused 

 so much mischief on hill farms in the southern uplands of 

 Scotland is the short -tailed field -vole (Arvicola agrestis). 

 Of this vole an excellent and exhaustive account was con- 

 tributed to the " Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club," in 1878, by the late Sir Walter Elliot, F.R.S. . . . 



