THE SHORT-TAILED FIELD MOUSE. 63 



by their depredations. They strip the bark and shoots 

 from off the sapling trees, and root up the newly-planted 

 acorns ; nor are they less injurious in wheat-fields. Each 

 individual lays up in its hole or burrow a winter store of 

 food, consisting of grain, acorns, nuts, peas, &c, ; and 

 hence it is not only from what they devour at the time, 

 but also from what they carry away that they cause such 

 injuries. In the kitchen garden, as we can personally 

 testify, they are not a little annoying, digging up peas 

 and beans when newly sown or when beginning to ger- 

 minate. One of their natural enemies, and one of the 

 most efficient agents in their destruction, is the short- 

 eared owl (Oils Ululd). Latham informs us that in 

 certain districts which have been infested with these 

 mice, the " owls have collected in large troops, and at- 

 tacked the depredators, to their utter extermination." 

 It is not exclusively to vegetable matters that these mice 

 confine their diet ; young birds become their prey, and 

 when food is scarce they will attack each other, the 

 younger or weaker falling victims to the more powerful. 

 The field mouse, though extremely timid, is easily 

 tamed and rendered familiar, and its manners are very 

 engaging. It is free from the unpleasant odour which 

 renders the common mouse a nuisance. The field mouse 

 breeds twice in the year, producing from six to tenryoung 

 at a time. It is easy, therefore, to calculate the rapidity of 

 its multiplication, and to account for the sudden appear- 

 ance of swarms in spots where few had been previously 

 observed. Buffbn states that by means of a single trap 

 two thousand three hundred were killed in twenty-three 

 days, in a single field of about forty acres in extent. In 

 some parts of our own country their numbers have been 

 incalculable and their devastations frightful. 



The Short-tailed Field Mouse 



(Arvicola ayrestis ; Campagnol, Buffon ; Arvicola arvalis, 

 Selys-Longchamps). 



The short-tailed field mouse (or Field-vole of Bell) is 

 one of those Rodentia from which we often receive ex- 



