THE PLAGUE OF VOLES 49 



made the most of it. They had not, I think, 

 caused her wounds." 



One conspicuous service rendered by the short- 

 eared owl to man must not be passed over. It is 

 well known that, from time to time, for centuries 

 past, various countries have been desolated by 

 armies of destroying voles which disappeared at 

 last almost as suddenly as they came. The vole 

 (arvicola agrestis) is a little creature, about the size 

 of a field mouse, but " with a short round muzzle, 

 short ears which are almost lost in her fur, and a 

 conspicuously short tail." Essex has been laid 

 waste over and over again by them. The New 

 Forest and the Forest of Dean have had their turn. 

 Countries like Hungary, Galicia, Thessaly, have 

 been over- run by them ; and Mr Hudson, the distin- 

 guished naturalist of La Plata, has admirably 

 described the mischief done by them, even in the 

 Pampas ; but it is the havoc wrought repeatedly in 

 the Lowlands of Scotland which has attracted most 

 attention. Whole plantations of young trees are 

 destroyed ; the young grasses are nibbled through or 

 poisoned over hundreds of square miles of pasture ; 

 the sheep and lambs pine away and die. A friend in 

 need is a friend indeed and all the records from 

 Holinshed downwards, tell us that the bane has 



D 



