252 BRITISH MAMMALS 



to die in Yorkshire and Lowland Scotland (and anciently in the 

 east of England) by destroying the turf. They will kill heather 

 by barking it or nipping off the young shoots. In one part of 

 Teviot Dale in 1891 15,000 acres of pasture were rendered 

 useless by voles. In Germany it has been recorded that over a 

 million and a half of these field voles were caught in fourteen 

 days. In 1872 and 1878 the harvests of Brandenburg and of 

 Central Germany were practically ruined by this plague. 



The food of this animal is almost every vegetable substance, 

 though they will also eat a few insects. They do especial damage 

 to gardens and plantations, their passion for eating and peeling 

 bark and nipping off buds being disastrous to saplings and young 

 trees. Grass is eaten down to the very roots, and thus turf is 

 for all time absolutely destroyed in pasture lands. Scotch farmers 

 and graziers are deserving of no pity whatsoever for the losses 

 they have suffered, because this plague is entirely due to their 

 gleeful extermination of birds and beasts of prey who would be 

 content to feed mainly, if not entirely, on voles if they were left 

 unharassed. 



The distribution of this harmful, and rather ugly, little Rodent 

 is in this kingdom confined entirely to England, Wales, and 

 Scotland, with the exception of the island of Lewis (Hebrides). 

 It is quite unknown in Ireland. Elsewhere it ranges over the 

 greater part of Northern and Central Europe, but apparently does 

 not extend into Asia or the regions bordering the Mediterranean. 

 In England it has seemingly existed since the Pleistocene period. 

 In the south of Europe at the present day it is replaced by an 

 allied species, Microtus arvalis, which differs from it in little else 

 than the structure of the second upper molar tooth. Curiously 

 enough, this southern field vole inhabited at any rate the east of 

 England at the beginning of the Pleistocene period before the 

 Glacial ages. It is possibly the ancestor of Microtus agrestis. 



^Microtus amphibius. THE WATER VOLE 



This is a much larger animal than the preceding species, a 

 fine male specimen being nearly 8J in. long from the tip of 



