40 THE PLAGUE OF VOLES 



our own country that the excessive multiplication of mice 

 and voles has been due to the destruction of hawks and 

 owls in the interests of game-preserving. No such proposi- 

 tion can be maintained in view of the plain facts of the 

 case. Not only do the English chroniclers record recurrent 

 visitations of this pest centuries before game-preserving, 

 in the strict sense, was dreamt of in England, but here in 

 Thessaly it never occurs to anybody to shoot the natural 

 enemies of mice. They are always present in great 

 numbers. In 1866, under the dominion of the Turks, 

 there was an outbreak similar to that of this year and 

 last. The Mohammedans are very kind to wild animals, 

 and protect all that an English gamekeeper classes as 

 vermin ; but in spite of this the plague of mice comes 

 (as it did in the days of Apollo Smintheus, the Mouse- 

 destroyer), waxes and wanes, according to the character 

 of the seasons. 



It must not be inferred from this that there is any 

 doubt as to the useful work done by buzzards, kestrels, 

 and all kinds of owls, against which gamekeepers have 

 hitherto been allowed, and even encouraged by those who 

 ought to know better, to wage indiscriminate war. These 

 birds do little harm to game; their presence may miti- 

 gate, sometimes even avert, a plague of mice ; but mild 

 seasons with abundant herbage will ever tend to encourage 

 extraordinary swarms of small rodents, and the only 

 chance of arresting the mischief under such circumstances 

 lies in prompt and combined action by men and with dogs 

 on the first symptoms of undue increase. 



