172 



THE CAMPAGNOL AND THE LEMMING. 



The Campagnol, or Short-tailed Field Mouse, is even more 

 destructive in the open meadows than the common gray mouse in the 

 barns or ricks; for, not contenting itself with plundering the ripened 

 crops of autumn, it burrows beneath the ground at sowing time, and 

 devours the seed-wheat which has just been laid in the earth. Besides 

 these open-air depredations, it makes inroads into ricks and barns, and 

 by dint of multitudinous numbers does very great harm. 



The color of the Campagnol is ruddy brown on the upper surface of 

 the body, and gray on the abdomen and chest. The ears are rounded 

 and very small, closely resembling those of the water vole. The tail is 

 only one-third the length of the body, and the total length of the an- 

 imal is rather more than five inches. As it belongs to the same genus 



The Campagnol or Short-tailed Field Mouse {Arvicola arvdlis) 



as the water vole, and is very closely related to that animal, it some- 

 times goes by the name of Field Vole. 



At uncertain and distant intervals of time, many of the northern 

 parts of Europe, such as Lapland, Norway, and Sweden, are subjected 

 to a strange invasion. Hundreds of little, dark, mouse-like animals 

 sweep over the land, like clouds of locusts suddenly changed into quad- 

 rupeds, coming from some unknown home, and going no one knows 

 whither. These creatures are the Lemmings, and their sudden ap- 

 pearances are so entirely mysterious that the Norwegians look upoii 

 them as having been rained from the clouds upon the earth. 



Driven onward by some overpowering instinct, these vast horaes. 

 travel in a straight line, permitting nothing but a smooth perpenaic- 

 ular wall or rock to turn them from their course. If they should hap- 

 pen to meet with any living being, they immediately attack, knowing 



