49 



In many parts of the world irruptions of lemmings, gophers 

 or field mice have occurred, and in such cases rapacious birds 

 have gathered, forming more or less effectual checks on these 

 outbreaks. Such occurrences are on record in England and 

 Scotland. The following quaint account, taken from Stowe's 

 "Chronicle" in 1581, tells of an outbreak in England: 



About Hallowtide last past [1580] in the marshes of Danessey Hundred, 

 in a place called South Minster, in the county of Essex, there sodainlie 

 appeared an infinite number of mice, which overwhelming the whole earth 

 in the said marshes, did sheare and gnaw the grass by the roots, spoyling 

 and tainting the same with their venimous teeth in such sort that the cat- 

 tell which grazed thereon were smitten with a murraine and died thereof; 

 which vermine by policie of man could not be destroyed, till at the last it 

 came to pass that there flocked together such a number of owles, as all the 

 shire was able to yield, whereby the marsh-holders were shortly delivered 

 from the vexation of the said mice. The Like of this was also in Kent. 1 



Similar "sore plagues" were experienced in Essex again in 

 1648, in Norfolk in 1745, and in Gloucestershire and Hampshire 

 in 18,13-14. 2 



The following extract regards Norfolk: 



Once in about six or seven years, Hilgay, about one thousand acres, is 

 infested with an incredible number of field mice, which, like locusts, would 

 devour the corn of every kind. Invariably there follows a prodigious 

 flight of Norway owls, and they tarry until the mice are entirely destroyed 

 by them. 3 



Notwithstanding that both the cause and remedy of these 

 frequent outbreaks of field mice were apparent, the destruction 

 of their natural enemies by man still went on. In 1875-76 a 

 noted outbreak of mice occurred in the borders of Roxburgh- 

 shire, Selkirkshire and Dumfriesshire, also in parts of Yorkshire. 

 The abundance of mice attracted hawks, owls and foxes in un- 

 usual numbers. In 1892 an alarming increase of these field mice 

 again occurred in the south of Scotland. In Roxburgh and 

 Dumfries alone the plague was estimated to have extended over 

 an area of 80,000 to 90,000 acres. 4 A preponderance of opinion 

 among the farmers was reported, tracing the cause of this out- 

 break to the scarcity of owls, hawks, weasels and other so- 



1 See also an account of the same occurrence by Childrey in Brittannia Baconica, 1660, p. 14. 

 * Journal, Royal Agricultural Society, 1892, p. 223, and papers there cited. 

 Gentleman's Magazine, 1754, Vol. XXIV, p. 215. 



Report to the Board of Agriculture on the Plague of Field Mice or Voles in the South of Scot, 

 land, 1892. 



