A MINIATURE BRITISH FAUNA 113 



ivy-clad tree, will be readily seized upon as a nesting- 

 place by any owls which may be in the vicinity; 

 and fortunately barn-owls are still common. The 

 most accomplished mouser that ever purred is but 

 a sluggard compared with the barn-owl in destroying 

 rats and mice a cat with wings, in fact, and a bird 

 which ought to be rigorously protected. As we have 

 said, the field-vole is fond of mossy fields and 

 meadows, and for such a small creature is a consider- 

 able burro wer. Some of the tunnels are deep down, 

 others near the surface ; and we have seen the latter 

 so frequent in a water-meadow as seriously to impede 

 the progress of the mower. The runs are con- 

 structed in the evenings; on such nights as are 

 warm and moist the field-vole displays considerable 

 activity in taking insects. This it performs with 

 adroitness, not unfrequently running up the stalks 

 of coarser herbage, the better to look out and secure 

 its prey. In winter it ascends the trunks of trees, 

 so as to be able to feed upon the bark when other 

 food is scarce. 



The bank or red field-vole occurs less frequently 

 and is more thinly distributed than either of the fore- 

 going species. It is probably more general than 

 reported, however, as casual observers fail to dis- 

 criminate between it and the common field- vole. 

 And this is hardly to be wondered at, seeing that 

 naturalists were long in discovering it ; and it is only 



