THE LEMMING. 





the earth on which it moves. At one time, when my eyes were in proper order, I 

 have frequently gone into any grass-field at random, and amused myself by detecting the 

 Field Mice as they crept through the grass-blades, and endeavoring to watch them in their 

 silent and almost imperceptible progress. They move so easily through the green 

 herbage that they scarcely stir the blades ; and are so similar in their color to the earth 

 as it shows between the leaves, that none but a practised eye can detect them. There is 

 hardly any sign to tell of its presence, except an undefined sense of something red 

 among the grass, which, unless it be immediately pounced upon, fades again into brown, 

 and the thing is gone. 



The Campagnol is a water-loving creature, and is oftener found in marshy ground 

 than in meadows which are elevated above the level of the neighboring lands and 

 ditches. A dry summer is very trying for these animals, and a long-Qontinued drought 

 is fatal to hundreds of them. 



The Field Vole carries its destructive powers even into woods and plantations, and 

 is often the unknown cause by which some cherished young tree has drooped, withered, 

 and died. These little animals are good burrowers, and are in the habit of digging 

 into the ground, and nibbling the living roots of trees and shrubs. Sometimes the 

 mice attack the bark, and, by completely stripping it from the circumference of the 

 tree, destroy it as effectually as if it had been cut down with an axe. 



THERE is another species of Field Mouse, in which the tail is much longer in propor- 

 tion, and the dimensions are altogether smaller. This is the BANK VOLE or BANK 

 CAMPAGNOL, and must not be confounded with the Long-tailed Field Mouse, which is 

 not a vole at all, but a veritable mouse. 



AT uncertain and distant intervals of time, many of the northern parts of Europe, 

 such as Lapland, Norway, and Sweden subjected to a strange invasion. Hundreds of 



little, dark, mouse-like animals 

 sweep over the land, like clouds 

 of locusts suddenly changed into 

 quadrupeds, coming from some 

 unknown home, and going no one 

 knows whither. These creatures 

 are the LEMMINGS, and their sud- 

 den appearances are so entirely 

 mysterious, that the Norwegians 

 look upon them as having been 

 rained from the clouds upon the 

 earth. 



Driven onwards by some over- 

 powering instinct, these vast 

 hordes travel in a straight line, 

 permitting nothing but a smooth 

 perpendicular wall or rock to turn 

 them from their course. If they 

 should happen to meet with any 

 living being, they immediately 

 attack, knowing no fear, but only 

 urged by undiscriminating rage. 

 Any river or lake they swim with- 



!>ut hesitation, and rather seem to enjoy the water than to fear it. If a stack or a 

 torn-rick should stand in their way, they settle the matter by eating their way through 

 \t, and will not be turned from their direct course even by fire. The country over which 

 they pass is utterly devastated by them, and it is said that cattle will not touch the 

 grass on which a Lemming has trodden. 



These migrating hosts are accompanied by clouds of predaceous birds, and by many 

 predaceous quadrupeds, who find a continual feast spread for them as long as the 



~4 







LEMMING. Myodes Lemmas. 



