WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



put them in a cage by themselves, and on the 

 morning of the 8th secured them, one by one, 

 and moved them over. They were no less than 

 ten ! By July llth another family had been 

 reared, reached independence, and set free in 

 the meadow. These were but five. When 

 catching up this lot I found that there was 

 another litter of five, quite young ones, perhaps 

 three or four days old, but I could not be 

 sure which vole was the mother. By July 21st 

 yet another family had turned up, six in number 

 this time, but the same day I found one of 

 the old mice lying dead under a heap of grass. 

 Shocking to say, her friends had been acting 

 on the principle of 'waste not, want not,' and 

 had begun to eat her. What caused her death 

 I did not find out, but perhaps it was the 

 worries of so many young ones. The other 

 female did not look well, and I grew anxious 

 lest she too should be going wrong. How- 

 ever, she managed to rear her family. In the 

 meantime old ' Billie,' as we called him, had 

 disappeared. What became of him I could 

 not find out. That he was not in the cage was 

 certain, yet how he could have got out of it 

 was a puzzle. The mystery was never solved, 

 and I only hope that be got safely away out of 

 282 



