The Mammalian Fauna of the Hdinburgh District. 131 
the same county. Within the last two years I have 
obtained very typical specimens from Aberlady, Dalmeny, 
Colinton, Dreghorn, the Braid hills, and the Pentlands. 
On the southern slopes of the Pentlands, near the farm 
of Boghall, there is a young fir plantation filled with 
tussocks of the Azra cwspitosa grass, and here Agrestis is 
in its element, burrowing under the tussocks, whose tender 
shoots supply it with abundance of food during winter and 
spring. By setting a few traps in the little “seats” at the 
mouths of the burrows, I have had no difficulty in capturing 
the inmates. Beds of Juncus also form favourite haunts. 
Though they certainly remain more at home in winter than in 
summer, they do not in any sense hibernate, and while they 
probably move about more or less at all hours, I am inclined 
to think they are most active towards evening. In winter 
afternoons I often see them about the entrances to their 
burrows. Owls and kestrels (to say nothing of weasels) of 
course destroy great numbers. Besides finding their remains 
in the “castings” of these birds, I have seen in the nest of a 
long-eared owl near Balerno several of this and other small 
rodents lying ready for consumption. 
In the Southern Uplands the Field Vole, or Hill Mouse as 
it is there often called, at times multiplies to such an extent, 
and with such astonishing rapidity, as to assume the character 
of a veritable plague. The year 1876, for instance, was a 
memorable example. For a year or two previously they had 
been observed steadily increasing, no doubt in large measure 
owing to a succession of favourable winters, and reached a 
climax in 1876, when the pasture on whole hill-sides was 
destroyed by them. The country about Hawick seems to 
have suffered most. In the Borthwick-water district alone 
10,000 acres of pasture were wasted to a greater or less 
degree—the damage being estimated at not less than £5000. 
A full account of this plague was prepared by Sir Walter 
Elliot for the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ 
Club (vol. viii, p. 447). Sir Walter speaks of the present 
species only, but I imagine that in some localities at any 
rate the Bank Vole, which Dr Hardy (who identified speci- 
mens) tells us in a subsequent volume of the Proceedings 
