SHORT-TAILED FIELD VOLE 



days of Summer. The well-built nest is globular in 

 form, and is composed of various kinds of dry plants 

 collected from the near vicinity of its home. We have 

 found that where water lilies grow, this Vole shows a 

 love for the flowers, but we like to see it best of all when 

 it is sitting on a small heap of dehris anchored in mid- 

 stream, with a plant held between its fore paws, nibbhng 

 away contentedly, and yet keeping watch and guard in 

 readiness to dive and swim away to its hole in the opposite 

 bank as soon as danger threatens. 



Short-tailed Field Vole. — This short-tailed rodent with 

 such a long name is a common inhabitant of our 

 country, and in some seasons its numbers increase so 

 greatly beyond the normal that stern measures have to 

 be taken to cope with them. It is the old, old story of 

 the wilful upsetting of Nature's balance, which, if left 

 to itself, has a way of adjustment which every patient 

 student will have experienced. There is no such thing 

 as a unit in the world of life. All living things are related 

 and inter-related, dependent and inter-dependent. It 

 is a case of each for all, and all for each. We have 

 arrived at this happy consummation because our first- 

 hand studies have led us into by-ways which we never 

 contemplated when we first began our apprenticeship 

 in Nature's workshop many years ago. 



No animal or plant lives an entirely separate existence. 

 It both offers and receives, gives and takes. This is the 

 basis of its life. This law of dependence and inter- 

 dependence can be fully illustrated in the case of the 



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