564 THE LEMMING. 
the earth on which it moves. At one time, when my eyes were in proper order, I 
have frequently gone into any grass-field at random, and amused myself by detecting the 
Field Mice as they crept through the grass blades, and endeavouring to watch them 
in their silent and almost imperceptible progress. They move so easily through the green 
herbage that they scarcely stir the blades ; and are so similar in their colour to the earth 
as it shows between the leaves, that none but a practised eye can detect them. There is 
hardly any sign to tell of its presence, except an undefined sense of something red among 
the grass, which, unless it be immediately pounced upon, fades again into brown, and the 
thing is gone. 
The Campagnol is a water-loving creature, and is oftener found in marshy ground than 
in meadows which are elevated above the level of the neighbouring lands and ditches. 
A dry summer is very trying for these animals, and a long-continued drought is fatal 
to hundreds of them. 
The Field Vole carries its destructive powers even into woods and plantations, and is 
often the unknown cause by which some cherished young tree has drooped, withered, and 
died. These little animals are good burrowers, and are in the habit of digging into the 
ground, and nibbling the living roots of trees and shrubs. Sometimes the mice attack the 
bark, and, by completely stripping it from the circumference of the tree, destroy it 
as effectually as if it had been cut down with an axe. 
THERE is another species of Field Mouse, in which the tail is much longer in proportion, 
and the dimensions are altogether smaller. This is the BANK VOLE, or BANK CAMPAGNOL, 
and must not he confounded with the Long-tailed Field Mouse, which is not a vole 
at all, but a veritable mouse. 
AT uncertain and distant intervals of time, many of the northern parts of Europe, 
such as Lapland, Norway, and Sweden, are subjected to a strange invasion. Hundreds of 
little, dark, mouse-like animals 
sweep over the land, like clouds 
of locusts suddenly changed into 
quadrupeds, coming from some 
unknown home, and going no one 
knows whither. These creatures 
ave the LemmMinecs, and their sud- 
den appearances are so entirely 
mysterious, that the Norwegians 
Jook upon them as haying been 
rained from the clouds upon the 
earth. 
Driven onwards by some over- 
powering instinct, these vast 
hordes travel in a straight line, 
: : permitting nothing but a smooth 
Gf fo ; perpendicular wall or rock to turn 
eh ee them from their course. If they 
iy DW, VW SEMIO PYF should happen to meet with any 
ae living being, they immediately 
attack, knowing no fear, but only 
urged by undiscriminating rage. 
Any river or lake they swim with- 
out hesitation, and rather seem to enjoy the water than to fear it. Ifa stack or a corn-rick 
should stand in their way, they settle the matter by eating their way through it, and 
will not be turned from their direct course even by fire. The country over which they pass 
is utterly devastated by them, and it is said that cattle will not touch the grass on which 
a Lemming has trodden. 
These migrating hosts are accompanied by clouds of predaceous birds, and by many 
predaceous quadrupeds, who find a continual feast spread for them as long as the 
LEMMING.—Myodes Lemmus. 
