THE FIELD VOLE 231 



bears a close resemblance to the true mice. The head is 

 large in proportion and the body is stoutly built. It is 

 of a reddish-brown colour, changing to grey underneath. 

 The favourite resort of the Field Vole is damp meadows, 

 adjacent to woods and copses, where it burrows incessantly 

 and makes innumerable runs. The general food of the 

 species consists of herbage of all kinds, roots, bark, buds, 

 leaves, and fruit ; but it will dine with almost equal readi- 

 ness on insects and flesh. It does not confine its depreda- 

 tions to the field ; it readily transfers them to the rickyard 

 and the barn. 



It is an amazingly prolific little animal, as it need be, one 

 would think, to exist at all in face of the ceaseless toll levied 

 upon it by weasels, owls, and other carnivorous creatures. 

 But the Vole brings three or four families a year into the 

 world, and exhibits a peculiarity in making its appearance 

 in swarms in some selected locality. ' Mice plagues ' have 

 appeared in various parts of the country, usually without 

 any apparent reason. One such visitation occurred in 

 1891 in the counties of Dumfries and Roxburgh in Scotland. 

 It was suggested that gamekeepers had almost exterminated 

 the weasels and owls, and thus the Voles had been allowed 

 to increase without hindrance ; but in other districts 

 that have suffered no such reason could be advanced. 



In the Forest of Dean about the middle of the last 

 century certain new plantations became so infested with 

 Voles as to threaten destruction to the whole of the young 

 trees. ' In the reports made to Government on the subject, 

 it appeared that the roots had been eaten through wherever 

 they obstructed the runs of the mice. Various plans were 

 devised for their destruction : traps were set, poison laid, 

 and cats turned out, but nothing appeared to lessen their 

 number. It was at last suggested that if holes were dug, 

 into which the mice might be enticed or fall, their destruc- 

 tion might be effected.' This plan was adopted, and at 

 intervals of about twenty yards were dug holes, eighteen to 

 twenty inches in depth, and wider at the bottom than at the 

 top, so that the animal once in could not readily get out 

 again. In these holes at least thirty thousand Voles were 

 caught in the course of three or four months ; and this 



