CLASS MAMMALIA. 65 



principal food is aquatic vegetables, of which it only takes 

 what can well be spared. Occasionally, when it is abundant 

 and the weather severe, it does mischief among osier beds ; 

 but the injury inflicted on the farmer is so small as hardly 

 to be worth consideration. 



Arvicola agrestis, Linn. COMMON, OR SHORT-TAILED, FIELD 



VOLE. 



This Vole abounds sometimes to such an extent as to 

 entirely destroy the herbage. From the quantity of food 

 consumed by it, it is easy to conceive the devastation it may 

 cause when existing in large numbers. Not satisfied with 

 herbage only, Voles, according to Bell (Brit. Quadrupeds, 

 p. 325), were known, many years since, to destroy the planta- 

 tion of young oaks in the New Forest and in the Forest of Dean. 

 Some years ago, I recorded (Zool., [881, p. 461) the weight of 

 food, amounting to six drachms (apothecaries weight) of clover, 

 consumed during the space of four-and-twenty hours, by a 

 specimen I had in confinement. 



Its insatiable appetite compels it to be abroad at all 

 seasons of the year and all hours of the day ; but I have 

 noticed those in captivity to be more active towards and 

 during the evening. They appear rather stupid, and I never 

 succeeded in making them very tame. 



Bell says Arvicola agrestis may always be distinguished 

 by the character of its second upper molar, which has five 

 cemental spaces, whereas the tooth in A rvicola arvalis (not yet 

 found in Great Britain), as in all the other European Voles, 

 presents four spaces. 



The nest is usually placed among the roots of grass, 

 sometimes under fallen timber. The young are from four to 

 six in number, and there are generally three or four broods 



in a year. Weasels, Owls, and Kestrels, are their greatest 



6 



