xiv. Proceedings, ]^ January gth, igiy. 



Ordinary Meeting, January 9th, 191 7. 



The President, Professor Sydney J. HiCKSON, 'M.A., D.Sc, 

 F.R.S., in the Chair. 



A vote of thanks was accorded the donors of the books upon 

 the table. 



Mr. Francis Jones, M.Sc, F.R.S.E., read a paper entitled 

 " Note on the action of Hydrogen on Sulphuric Acid." 



This paper is printed in the Memoirs. 



Mr. T. A. Coward, F.Z.S., F.E.S., read a paper entitled 

 "An Undescribed Habit of the Field Vole." 



Mr. Coward stated that at the end of December, 191 6, he 

 found three Field Voles occupying nests at an elevation above 

 the groiind varying from three to six feet. The first was in a 

 round ball-like nest of grass, apparently entirely constructed by 

 the mouse, similar in shape and size tlo the summer nest of a 

 dormouse. It was placed at a height of about five to six feet, 

 in the branches of a willow, in an osier-bed at the edge of Ros- 

 therne Mere, Cheshire. The other two mice we're in nests made 

 in the hollows of the old nests of birds, and a third nest of this 

 character was found without occupant. These three nests were 

 in the hedge bordering the osier-bed. All three voles were dead, 

 and the first one found — on December 26th — had died so recently 

 that the fleas had not left its body. 



The Field Vole is far more terrestrial in its habits than its 

 relative, the Bank Vole, Evotomys glareolus, which constantly 

 climbls to secure hedge fruits or to bark tender twigs. Barrett- 

 Hamilton says of Field Voles that " although not incapable of 

 climbing, they never under normal circumstances leave the 

 ground." The nests, collections of dry grass, are placed in a 

 hollow on the surface of the ground, or, especially in winter, in 

 chambers in their long subterranean runs or burrows. No writer 

 on British mammals records other situations for nests. The Bank 

 Vole usually nests in the same manner, but Collett mentions as 

 an exception a nest which he found in Norway within that of a 

 Fieldfare, six feet above the ground in a spruce. One of the 

 nests (exhibited at the meeting), is similar in character to this 

 nest of the Bank Vole described by Collett — domed, and with 

 an entrance hole at the side. This nest is built over the old nest 

 of some passerine bird, probably a greenfinch. 



Barrett- Hamilton and Hinton say that Field Voles " are 

 very hardy, and never hibernate, although they may be com- 



