134 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
teeth, they are capable of making their escape in a very short 
time from almost any kind of wooden box. When disturbed 
or hungry they make a half grumbling, half squeaking 
noise, very much the same as guinea-pigs do, only not so 
loud. 
The dimensions of this animal vary considerably, and do 
not appear to me to be always accounted for by age and sex. 
The following are a few measurements taken by myself from 
specimens captured in the months of January, March, and 
November :— 
| | | 
Length of head and body, | 3°9 in. | 4:0 in. | 4°5 in. | 3°75 in.| 3°5 in. 
Length of head alone, . 2',, | P2451 T4. TIS eee 
Length of tail, ° ; 1°25, | b5,, 1S 7) Ps eee 
ARVICOLA GLAREOLUS (Schreb.). BANK VOLE. 
My recent investigations among our micro-mammals have 
convinced me that the Bank Vole is common all along the 
valley of the Forth, and in all likelihood the same may be said 
of the Tay and the Tweed. It appears, however, to be in a 
great measure confined to the fertile belts in the lower parts 
of the valleys, becoming much scarcer or altogether absent in 
the upland districts, exactly where the Field Vole becomes 
most abundant. In the immediate neighbourhood of Edin- 
burgh I find the Bank Vole the commoner of the two, and I 
am inclined to think this has long been the case, but there is 
no evidence to point to, as the earlier writers seldom dis- 
tinguished between the two species—indeed, MacGillivray is 
the only one who does so with regard to the Forth area, and 
the only locality he mentions is near Bathgate, in the county © 
of Linlithgow, where specimens were procured by Mr Durham 
Weir (“ British Quadrupeds,” 1838, p. 272). The only other 
Scotch locality given by MacGillivray for the animal is near 
Kelso, and on 6th May 1840 Dr Johnstone announced its 
