00 BRITISH AKVICOL^E, OR YOLES. 



exceeding six or seven inches in length. In colour 

 it is light greyish brown above, shading into bliiish 

 grey below, and has a tuft of thick hair growing on 

 each side of the jaw, which gives it a peculiarly bluff 

 appearance. It frequents damp pastures and low- 

 lying fields, scarcely if ever being found in hilly 

 localities, its place there being taken by its congener 

 the bank-vole (Arvicola riparia). It seems to be 

 more prolific than the water-vole, generally pro- 

 ing three or four litters in the season, while the 

 others generally only have three or four young ones 

 about the beginning of May. They are also much 

 more destructive in their habits, often peeling the 

 bark from young trees for food, and thus committing 

 considerable damage. 



Some years ago a great number of young holly 

 trees were destroyed in the New Forest and in Dean 

 Forest by the voles, the bark being entirely eaten 

 off for a distance of several inches from the 

 ground. Great numbers of young oaks and chest- 

 nuts were also found dead, and on being taken up 

 it was found that the roots had been gnawed 

 through below the surface of the ground. The 

 most effectual method of dispersing these marauders, 

 it was found, was digging a great number of holes 

 in the ground about two feet long, eighteen inches 

 wide, and eighteen inches deep at the bottom ; at 

 the top they were only eighteen inches long and 



