THE BANK VOLE 



it took away seventy- five grains of corn, making 

 eighteen journeys in all. Four pieces of barley 

 were the most it could manage comfortably in 

 its mouth at one time, but it would try and 

 carry more, when they fell out at the corners 

 of its mouth, and it had to pick them up and 

 push them in again, which it would do several 

 times over. The first .t*wo loads it buried in the 

 soil, scratching holes, dropping the grain in, 

 and then scraping the earth back again, but 

 the rest were taken down one of the tunnels, and 

 judging by the little time it wasted the vole 

 must simply have dropped the corn and not 

 bothered to cover it up. Its way of picking up 

 the grain was to take each piece up in its 

 teeth, and then push it well into its mouth 

 with its paws. The biggest mouthful I saw 

 it push in was seven pieces of corn, when its 

 cheeks simply bulged ! Any grains that were 

 dropped when loading up were carefully picked 

 up again and not left lying about. Another 

 vole working in an extra hurry managed to 

 carry off twenty-one loads in ten minutes, 

 taking ninety-one grains home in the time ; but 

 this was beaten when a mouse took home 

 twenty-three loads without a pause between 

 them, and then, after resting for a moment, 



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