VOLES. 213 



advisers were disregarded. The hints which they had given, 

 both verbally and in print, that laying poison in the fields might 

 perhaps benefit the infected land, but not agriculturists, were 

 not appreciated till too late. Besides poison, smoking out the 

 Voles was tried on suitable ground with satisfactory result. 

 All the holes were stopped up, and poisonous coal and sulphur- 

 smoke (bisulphide of carbon) was allowed to pour into the 

 burrows which the Voles reopened : but this efficacious mode 

 of destroymg them could not be employed everywhere, and 

 was very expensive. People knew not what to do, because 

 they had neglected to destroy the Voles at the proper time." 



It may be mentioned, in conclusion, that fossil remains of 

 the Common Field-Vole have been obtained from the Pltisto- 

 cene brick-earths of the Thames Valley, and likewise from 

 Kirkdale Cave in Yorkshire, and Kent's Plole Cavern near 

 Torquay. A fact of still more interest is the occurrence of 

 jaws of the continental M. arvalis in- the " forest-bed " of the 

 Norfolk coast, and also in a fissure near Frome, in Somerset- 

 shire. 



II. THE BANK-VOLE. MICROTUS GLAREOLUS. 



Mtts glareolus, Schreber, Saugethiere, vol. iii. p. 680 (1774). 

 Arvicola pratensis, Baillon, in F. Cuvier's Hist. Nat, Mamm., 



vol. iv. Tabl. gen. p. 4 (1834); Bell, British Quadrupeds, 



p. 230 (1837). 

 Arvicola riparia^ Yarrell, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. 109; 



Jenyns, British Vertebr. p. 34 (1835). 

 Arvicola glareolus^ Bell, British Quadrupeds, 2nd ed. p. 327 



(1874). 

 Arvicola {Evotomys) glareola, Newton, Geol. Mag. decade 2, 



vol. viii. p. 258 (1881). 

 Microtus glareolus, Lataste, Act. Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, vol. 

 xxxviii. p. 36 (1884). 



[Plate XXV.) 



