FIELD VOLE. 105 



midday during the winter. It is often found in fields far away 

 from any water. 



The female constructs a thick-walled globular nest of reeds 

 and grasses in the chamber under the bank, or in a hollow 

 willow or a bird's nest, and there brings forth her litter of about 

 five (two to seven) naked and blind young. The process is 

 repeated three or four times during the season. 



The Water Vole is generally distributed in Britain, but does 

 not occur in Ireland, or the Scottish islands ; nor is it known 

 outside Britain. 



The surface of the molar teeth in all the Voles presents a 

 pattern of alternating triangular prisms. In the Water Vole 

 and the Field Vole these teeth are not rooted in the jaw ; in 

 the Bank Vole they are in the adult. 



In addition to the definitely black sub-species (reta) referred 

 to above, the southern brown sub-species occasionally throws 

 up black, pied, or albino variations. 



Field Vole (Microtus agrestis, Linn.). 



To country folk the Field Vole is known generally as the 

 Short-tailed Field Mouse, to distinguish it from the Wood 

 Mouse which is also the Long-tailed Field Mouse. Being 

 different in organisation from the true Mice the attempt was 

 made in natural history works many years ago to substitute the 

 name Vole for these blunt-muzzled Rodents. Recently, after 

 about a hundred years' use of the word Vole in all the works 

 on mammals, Mr. Barrett-Hamilton has objected to it, at least 

 in connection with the present species, on the ground that Field . 

 Vole is a duplication, the word Vole meaning " field." This 

 would be almost as bad as Mr. Barrett-Hamilton's own use of 

 such scientific names as Pipistrellus pipistrellus, Barbastella 

 barbastclla, Maries martes, and Capreolus capraea, which 

 are duplications in the same language ! In East Anglia this 

 species is the Marsh Mouse, and in Surrey Dog Mouse. 



