348 



THE RODENTS OR GNAWING ANIMALS. 



mits great depredations on beech seeds and nuts, 

 grains, turnips and potatoes. During the severest 

 cold of winter seasons it hibernates intermittently; 

 in mild weather it awakes and feeds on its provis- 

 ions. It is remarkably voracious and requires a 

 great deal of food before it is satisfied. It cannot 

 abstain from water. 



The Social The Campagnol has the social in- 



Instinct of the stinct highly developed and lives 

 Campagnol. quite peacefully with others of its 

 own kind, the mated couples congregating in large 

 numbers and digging their burrows side by side. 

 Its fruitfulness in the propagation of its species is 

 extremely great, and it may thus become the cause 

 of great damage. 



"In favorable circumstances," says Blasius, "the 

 Campagnols increase in a marvelous manner. There 

 are many cases on record where their excessive mul- 

 tiplication has resulted in the destruction of a great 

 part of the harvest over a large extent of country, 

 and where young beech plantations have been ruined 

 on more than a thousand acres by the animals gnaw- 

 ing off the bark. In the second decade of the pres- 

 ent century this plague occurred repeatedly on the 

 lower Rhine." 



Inadequacy Unfortunately Man is utterly power- 



of Attempts to less to resist these Mice. All means 

 Exterminate. { extermination, which have so far 

 been devised, appear insufficient in the face of the 

 enormous multiplication of those voracious hordes; 

 only epidemics, breaking out among them and to a 

 certain extent also among the beasts of prey, which 

 in common with the Mice are objects of relentless 

 persecution at the hands of Man, can remedy the 

 evil. The devices for their destruction are numerous. 

 Among others is a kind of earth auger or post hole 

 digger with which one bores holes in the ground, 

 from five to seven inches in diameter and twenty- 

 four inches deep, the result being that the Mice 

 which fall into them devour each other, never at- 

 tempting to dig tunnels and in this way escape. 

 The annoyed agriculturist throws poisoned grains 

 into their burrows, drives smoke into them, or 

 sprinkles whole fields with a decoction of nux 

 vomica or euphorbia; in short, he resorts to every 

 expedient to get rid of the abominable plague; but 

 usually all efforts are in vain and some of the 

 methods employed (especially that of using poison) 

 are highly dangerous even to human life. The most 

 effective poison fails to destroy all the Campagnols 

 of a field, but may cause the unintended death 

 of their relentless enemies— and consequently our 

 friends — Foxes, Stoats, Weasels, Buzzards, Pole- 

 cats, Owls, Crows, to say nothing of the Partridges, 

 Hares and domestic animals, from the Pigeon up- 

 wards to the Cow or Horse which may fall victims. 

 This fact alone should be sufficient to induce the 

 utter cessation of the practice of laying out poisons 

 in places accessible to any other animals than those 

 aimed at. 



The Root ln Siberia, from the Ob to the Onon, 

 Vole of Si- there exists an Arvicole, which is 

 berla. a l so worthy of notice, though for 



reasons different from those entitling the Campagnol 

 to notice; it is the Root Vole {Arvicola ceconomus). 

 It is somewhat larger than the Field Mouse, being 

 seven inches long, the tail occupying two inches of 

 this length. It is of a light yellowish gray tint 

 above and gray below. It is distinguished from the 

 Field Mouse by its shorter head, smaller eyes and 

 short ears, nearly buried in the fur. 



Habits The Root Vole is sometimes found 



of the Root in great numbers in plains and is 

 Vole. deemed a benefactor by the inhabit- 



ants of those desolate, solitary regions; for it works 

 for the benefit of mankind instead of for its damage. 

 It digs long tunnels under the sod, which lead to a 

 large, round nest, twelve inches in diameter. The 

 nest does not lie very deep underground and is con- 

 nected with several very spacious store-rooms; it is 

 softly lined with various kinds of vegetable sub- 

 stances and serves as both couch and nursery; the 

 store-rooms are filled with various roots. 



The uncivilized, nomad tribes, who are not given 

 to agricultural pursuits, dig up the treasured stores 

 of the Vole in autumn, when the store-rooms are 

 filled, reject the white roots (which have benumbing 

 properties) and keep the black roots of the meadow- 

 button, which they use not only as an article of diet 

 but also as a tea. These provisions, taken from the 

 Mice, often last the poor country-folk all through 

 the winter; what is left is given to the wild Pigs, 

 and if a Mouse happens to be taken along with a 

 bundle of the roots it too is eaten as well as the food. 

 The Vole's Fond- A remarkable trait of this and allied 

 nessfor species of Arvicolidae is their fond- 

 Trauel. ness for change of habitation. To 



the grief of the natives they set out on their migra- 

 tions in the spring of some years and go westward 

 in hordes, always pushing straight ahead, over rivers 

 and mountains. Thousands of them are drowned 

 and devoured by fish and Ducks, and other thou- 

 sands are eaten by the Foxes and Sables which 

 always accompany these armies. 



THE LEMMINGS. 



The Lemmings (Myodes) are, among the Arvicoles, 

 what the Hamsters are among the true Mice, in 

 shape and character: they are the members of 

 the family having specially vigorous organization. 

 Short, stumpy tails are their most notable physical 

 characteristic. The head is large in relation to the 

 body and thickly grown with hair; the upper lip is 

 deeply cleft, the roundish ear is small and com- 

 pletely hidden by the fur; the eyes are small. The 

 feet are provided with five toes and even the soles 

 are fur-clad, and the fore feet in particular are armed 

 with large, strong claws well adapted for digging. 



Appearance of The typical form of the variety, the 

 the Lem- Lemming {Myodes lemmus, Lemmus 

 ming. norwegicus), attains a total length of 



six inches, some three-fourths of an inch being in- 

 cluded in the little stubby tail. The rich, long fur is 

 marked in a manner very agreeable to the eye of the 

 beholder. The ground color is a brownish yellow, 

 having wavy, shimmering lights on the nape of the 

 neck, and relieved with darker spots; two yellow 

 bands run from the eyes to the back of the head. 

 Tail and paws are yellow, and the under parts are 

 also of a plain yellow, nearly sandy color. 



An Object of The Lemming is in many respects 



Scientific Per- without doubt the most perplexing 

 plexity. anc j mysterious of all Scandinavian 



animals. The peasants of the mountains believe, de- 

 spite the civilization of the present day, that it rains 

 down from heaven, thereby explaining its appear- 

 ance at times in such extraordinary numbers. As an 

 offset to this, and accounting for the great deple- 

 tion which often takes place among them, the ani- 

 mals are said to fatally impair their digestion by their 

 voracity, and thus perish. Olaus Magnus says that 

 he saw a great many Stoats in the forest in 1518, the 



