HOW TO KNOW THE WILD ANIMALS 



By DOUGLAS ENGLISH, B.A., F.R.P.S. 



Author of ""Wee Tim'rous Beasties," etc. 



THE SHORT-TAILED MEADOW MOUSE— II 



SHORT-TAILED FIELD MOUSE. FIELD VOLE. COMMON VOLE. 

 With Photographs by the Author 



HAVING marketl down the particu- 

 lar community of Meadow Mice 

 referred to in my previous article, 

 and not being aware of the existence 

 of any other in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood, I endeavoured to trap some 

 of the mice alive. In this I was com- 

 pletely unsuccessful. I tried the ordinary 

 mouse-traps, drop-traps of several stan- 

 dard kinds, small pitfall traps, traps 

 of my own 

 devising, and 

 even springes 

 to entangle 

 their feet. I 

 tried every 

 bait which 

 was known 

 to me, and 

 several new 

 ones by wa\' 

 of expe r i - 

 ment. Every- 

 thing failed. 

 It is curi- 

 ous that no 

 really effec- 

 tive bait for 

 these mice, shoki i \i i ■•> 



or " sa f e " 



means of poisoning them wholesale, has yet 

 been discovered. In "Geoponica," a compi- 

 lation of Greek papers on Agriculture, 

 which dates from about 920 A.D., I find the 

 following ; " Apuleius suggests smearing 

 the seed with o.x-gall and the mice will not 

 touch it, but it is better to get some 

 herrilock seed in the dog-days, and mince 

 it up with hellebore and meal, or to mince 

 together wild cucumber, or henbane, or 

 bitter almond, and black hellebore, mix 

 it with equal parts of meal, make a paste 

 of it with oil, and put it in their holes. 



Tasting, the}' die. In Bithynia j^actical 

 farmers stop their holes with rhododen- 

 dron leaves, so that the mice, rushing out 

 of the holes, seize the leaves with their 

 teeth. Seizing, they perish." The writer 

 here breaks off suddenly and proceeds 

 with almost vicious abruptness: "Take 

 paper and write as follows — / adjure 

 you mice that are found here, do me no 

 harm, nor suffer another mouse to do 



me harm, for 

 I give you 

 this field (here 

 insert details 

 of the field). 

 // / catch 

 any of you 

 here after this, 

 ichen I get 

 you. hy the 

 Mother of the 

 Gods. I a ill 

 cut each of 

 y u i n t 

 seven parts. 



• \V hen 

 y o u have 

 written this, 

 glue the pa- 

 per, before 

 sunrise, to some stone in the field 

 where the mice are, and be sure that 

 the writing faces outwards. I have in- 

 cluded this in case it might appear that 

 I had left anything out. I don't accept 

 everything of this kind myself, heaven 

 forbul ! And I recommend any one who 

 does not wish to be made a fool of to lollow 

 my examiile." 



.\ millenium has not ailvanced us nuu h. 

 During the plague in Thessal\- in i8c)2, 

 steps were taken to jirocure, on the one 

 hand, holy water from Mecca, and, on 



199 



