FIELD VOLE. 269 



the runs of the Mice. Various plans were devised 

 for their destruction; traps were set, poison laid, 

 and cats turned out ; but nothing appeared to lessen 

 their number. It was at last suggested that if holes 

 were dug, into which the Mice might be enticed or 

 fall, their destruction might be effected. Holes, 

 therefore, were made, about twenty yards asunder, 

 in some of the Dean Forest plantations, being about 

 twelve in each acre of ground. These holes were 

 from eighteen to twenty inches in depth, and two 

 feet one way by one and a half the other ; and they 

 were much wider at the bottom than at the top, 

 being excavated or hollowed under ; so that the 

 animal, when once in, could not easily get out 

 again. In these holes at least thirty thousand Mice 

 were caught in the course of three or four months, 

 that number having been counted out, and paid for 

 by the proper officers of the forest. It was, how- 

 ever, calculated that a much greater number than 

 these were taken out of the holes, after being caught, 

 by Stoats, Weasels, Kites, Hawks, and Owls ; and 

 also by Crows, Magpies, Jays, &c. The Cats, also, 

 which had been turned out, resorted to these to 

 feed upon the Mice ; and, in one instance, a Dog 

 was seen greedily eating them. In addition to the 

 quantity above mentioned, a great many Mice were 

 destroyed in traps, by poison, and by animals and 

 birds of prey ; so that in Dean Forest alone, the. 

 number of those which were killed in various ways 

 could not be calculated at much less than one hun- 

 dred thousand. In the New Forest, from the 



