SMALL DEER-OVR RODENTS 151 
some other pretty creatures, they have to be dealt 
summarily with. I feel sorry when I find them in 
the roads, where they have been flung after having 
been flattened out by a tile trap. It must be done, 
though ; choice peas cost money, and the cottage 
gardener cannot stand his rows being thinned by 
them. 
The harvest mouse, with his grass nest, has been 
so much written about that he need only be men- 
tioned here. 
The field-vole is very like the lemmings in its 
movements. In Surrey it is called the dog-mouse, 
to distinguish it from all the others. As large as a 
half-grown rat it is. I have known this species 
become a great nuisance in some seasons. They can 
climb like the others, and in flower gardens they 
prove very troublesome. The flowers with fleshy 
stems especially they favour and carry away into 
their holes. For some time they gave the gardeners 
much trouble, but the creatures departed in numbers 
just as suddenly as they came. Whither they betook 
themselves remained a mystery. A gentleman had 
asked me to procure a couple of the large species 
for him : I thought this would be easily done ; but 
this season (1892) not a single one has been seen 
about here. 
