78 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



Shropshire the Field Vole is found in most parts that 

 are under cultivation, and, being noticed chiefly when 

 the grass or wheat is cut, is sometimes called the 

 Harvest Mouse a name which belongs properly to a 

 very different and much rarer animal, described on a 

 previous page. Eyton says the Field Vole frequents the 

 banks of drains on the Weald Moors and swims and 

 dives well. The colour of this Vole is greyish-brown 

 above, greyish-white beneath ; length rather more than 

 5 inches, of which the tail measures only a fourth part. 

 The soles of the feet are remarkable for having six pads 

 instead of five. As in the other Voles the muzzle is short, 

 blunt, and the whole face rounded. 



BANK VOLE. In general appearance and habits this 

 M . glartolus. species closely resembles the last, and 



the two are often confounded together. 

 It is chiefly distinguished by its much brighter colour, 

 slightly smaller size, and relatively longer tail, while there 

 is some difference between the molar teeth in the two 

 species. The distribution of the Bank Vole is very 

 partial, for, while there are large areas in which it is 

 quite unknown, there are other districts in which it is 

 very abundant and the common Field Vole compara- 

 tively scarce. For instance Mr. J. Steele Elliott reports 

 that in the Wyre Forest and neighbourhood the Bank 

 Vole is numerous, and generally more common than the 

 Field Vole. Near Oswestry Mr. Dumville Lees has 

 caught numbers of Field Voles but never saw a Bank 

 Vole, while on a recent visit to Yorkshire he set a number 

 of traps and caught none but Bank Voles. Eyton states 

 that the Bank Vole occurred at Eyton in 1840, though 

 two years earlier he wrote that he had never seen it. 



