66 RODENTIA 



pastures alike. Formerly I was in the habit of looking upon 

 it as everywhere more abundant than the next species, but 

 this view has not been borne out by my recent investigations. 

 In the immediate neighbourhood of Edinburgh, for instance, 

 I have trapped three Glareolus for one of Agrestis, and I am 

 inclined to think that the former is likewise at the present 

 time the commoner animal in many other parts of the fertile 

 belt of country bordering the shores of the Forth, and 

 probably the same may be said of the valleys of the Tay 

 and the Tweed. But the moment we reach the hills and the 

 moorlands, Agrestis becomes the commoner, and is in many 

 districts apparently alone present. A number of years ago, 

 when my home was at Macbiehill in Peeblesshire, it was 

 very common there, and Mr J. Thomson, who has sent 

 me a specimen, tells me it is abundant about Stobo in 

 the same county. Within the last two years I have 

 obtained very typical specimens from Aberlady, Dalmeny, 

 Colinton, Dreghorn, the Braid hills, and the Pentlands. 

 On the southern slopes of the Pentlands, near the farm 

 of Boghall, there is a young fir plantation filled with 

 tussocks of the Aira ccespitosa grass, and here Agrestis is 

 in its element, burrowing under the tussocks, whose tender 

 shoots supply it with abundance of food during winter and 

 spring. By setting a few traps in the little " seats " at the 

 mouths of the burrows, I have had no difficulty in capturing 

 the inmates. Beds of Juncus also form favourite haunts. 

 Though they certainly remain more at home in winter than in 

 summer, they do not in any sense hibernate, and while they 

 probably move about more or less at all hours, I am inclined 

 to think they are most active towards evening. In winter 

 afternoons I often see them about the entrances to their 

 burrows. Owls and kestrels (to say nothing of weasels) of 

 course destroy great numbers, Besides finding their remains 



