LIFE IN WINTER NIGHTS 



301 



the glimpses that often accompany the short dashes and 

 high - pitched squeaks of mouselike animals among the 

 herbage, these wayside disturbances are caused by voles and 

 shrews. Probably it is the same at night, 

 when the same sounds can often be heard 

 in long grass and on overgrown banks. 



Harvest -mice are a comparatively 

 scarce species ; and their small size and 

 comparative drowsiness in winter would "xx^ 

 in any case make them inconspicuous in 

 the life of the night. Bank-voles are 

 very numerous and active, and often do 

 a great deal of damage in gardens, though 

 less than the wood-mouse. They are a less strictly 

 nocturnal species, and can often be spied running about 

 the hedgebanks and across rough ground by day. This 

 species is the ' long-tailed vole ' as opposed to the ' short- 

 tailed vole ' or field- vole ; but their tail is very much 

 shorter than that of a mouse. Their colour is warm 



WOOD-MOUSE 



WOOD-MOUSE JUMPING 



reddish-brown in summer, and a duller brown in winter. 

 Their heads are very different from those of mice ; the 

 ears and eyes are small, the muzzle blunt, and the hair of 



