WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



the different mice will be even scarcer than 

 before they began to increase. 



In ordinary times the bank vole is not a very 

 common mouse, though found in most parts of 

 Great Britain, and particularly fond of gardens, 

 for there it can find many good things which 

 are to its liking. It is easy to trap, being an 

 inquisitive little thing, and ready to go into 

 anything for cheese. It is often caught in the 

 daytime, for it has not that horror of the day- 

 light shared by so many of its relations. Most 

 mice are strictly creatures of the dark, but the 

 bank vole also runs about in the daytime. 

 It generally makes its nest under some old 

 stump or stone on a warm dry bank, and 

 has a system of roads or tunnels running 

 from it through all the surrounding plants. 

 If you look carefully into a hedgerow you 

 will see that down among the rubbish, the 

 dead leaves, grass, and plant stems, twisting 

 between the sticks and stones, are the high 

 roads of the little people of the fences. Well- 

 used tracks run here and there beaten and 

 padded by many tiny feet, and these are the 

 highways of the bank voles, the long-tailed 

 mice, and the shrews when they go out on 

 their hunting expeditions. Through these runs 



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