INJURIES BY ANIMALS AND BIRDS 535 



in long strips. In birch woods the trunks are often com- 

 pletely barked from top to bottom. Squirrels also eat fruit. 

 On the other hand squirrels do a certain amount of good by 

 destroying some destructive insects, lardae of beetles, etc. 



The suggestion offered as a remedy is that they should 

 not be allowed to become numerous, as they are in 

 many woods. 



Chapman, A., Trans. Roy. Scot. Arbor. Soc, 17, p. 161 

 (1903), and p. 12 in Append. (1904). 



A writer \\\Journ. Hort., June 10, 1909, says : ' The squirrel 

 likewise displays its sportiveness to advantage in spring- 

 time, not failing to find its store of acorns and Spanish 

 chestnuts laid up in the previous autumn, displaying con- 

 siderable power of memory, an attribute usually regarded as 

 the prerogative of man. It also " smells " the germinating 

 nuts or seeds sown in nurseries, and not least of its antics is 

 guiltiness of attacking the young of useful birds. Its feeding 

 propensities are displayed in woods, parks, plantations, and 

 pleasure grounds by devouring the buds of trees, usually 

 flowering trees; and later on it takes to the young growths, 

 and precludes all prospect of profitable timber production. 

 Yet these creatures are taken under the protecting arms of 

 the " lover of nature," in blissful ignorance that if afforestation 

 in this country is to be successful the squirrel must go, and 

 all the Rodentia.' 



Voles, although amongst the most injurious of our rodents 

 to different forms of plant life, are commonly confused with 

 rats, mice, and shrews. The Water Vole (Microtus amphibius) 

 is known as the Water Rat, and the Field Vole (Microtus 

 agresfis) is considered in ordinary parlance as a mouse. The 

 Bank Vole (Evotomys glareohis) is also considered as a mouse 

 or a shrew. The voles are distinguished from rats and 

 mice by the stout body, thicker head, blunt muzzle, by the 

 very short ears which are almost or completely buried in the 

 fur, and the comparatively short tail. All three species 

 injure plants, more especially the roots of grass, etc., but 

 they also do considerable damage to trees by eating the buds 

 and barking exposed roots and base of trunks of trees. 

 Every now and again the Field Vole appears in enormous 

 numbers and a general epidemic is the result, everything in 

 the way of a plant being indiscriminately destroyed. One 

 such epidemic was experienced in the south of Scotland in 



