BANK VOLE : HARE. 77 



I once at Ely found a small specimen of this 

 black variety, measuring not quite five inches from the 

 nose to the root of the tail, lying dead on the ground 

 beneath the nest of a white owl. Like shrews, which 

 are also often found at the foot of their nests, along 

 with their casts, this rat appeared to have been 

 caught and brought home by the parent owls to their 

 young, but afterwards rejected. 



BANK VOLE.* 



MR. SELBY writes me word, that the bank-vole is 

 very numerous in his garden at Twizell, and most 

 destructive to the flower-beds. He says, it is a keen 

 devourer of pinks and carnations; and a colony of 

 them, which had made their way into a large turf- 

 pit, have destroyed nearly the whole of some choice 

 plants. He adds, they are also very fond of the Chi- 

 nese chrysanthemum. 



I have occasionally taken this species in Cam- 

 bridgeshire in corn-stacks ; but it is not near so com- 

 mon as the field-vole,-)- which abounds in our low 

 meadows, sometimes to an extraordinary degree, as 

 it does also in many other parts of the country. 



COMMON HARE.J 



SOME years ago a hare was killed at Bottisham 

 Hall, which, on examination, was found to be with- 

 out ears. Not only was the entire auricle wanting, 

 but even the orifice in the skin leading to the meatus 



* Arvicola pratensis, Baillon. t A. agrestis, Flem. 



J Lepus timidus, Linn. 



