The Zoologist— May, 1866. 207 



potatoes, about eighteeu inches from the ground, and was composed of soft short straws. 

 In the same pit I eajnuitd a large male longlailed tiekl-niouse. It was ensconsed in 

 a nest buill on the ground. This nest was more compact and made of finer materials. 

 The potatoes were gnawed, and had served for their winter food. The meadow vole 

 had probably been worsted in a battle with the mouse, and had crept into its retreat 

 and died. 



Length of vole from nose to end of tail, without projecting 



hairs -..-_. 4 inches II lines. 



Length of tail - ... . - - 1 inch 9 „ 



„ ear ----- - 4 „ 



Dimensions of meadow vote given by Mr. Macyillivray, in ' Naturalists' Library :' — 



Total length - - - ' - - - 5 inches 2 lines. 



Tail -..-.-. 1 inch 9 „ 

 Ear - 6i „ 



I have enclosed the remains of the vole, in order to be certain that it is the species 

 above named. — George Roberts ; Loflkouse, Wakefield. 



Rats climbing Trees. — In the April number of the 'Zoologist' (S. S. loS), 

 Mr. Peers mentions as an unusual circumstance the fact of a rat climbing a hedge. 

 From one cause or other rats will occasionally take to trees and bushes, and I have 

 met with several instances of this climbing propensity. When pressed by ferrets and 

 obliged to bolt from their holes in a hedge-bank, they will soi:ielinies endeavour to 

 efl'ect an escape by ascending the hedge, and, should it be a closely-clipped fence, will 

 work their way along it most exjjeditiously. It does not, however, necessarily require 

 the strong incentive of a ferret in the rear to make these expert foragers take to timber. 

 I once shot a rat as it sat on the slender bough of a willow overhanging a pond, and 

 aboui eight feet above the water: it had gone out so lar on the branch that I do not 

 think it could possibly have retraced its steps without falling into tlie water. Last 

 summer I saw a pair of brown rats working their way along a closely-growing fence ; 

 they were in the centre of the heilge and about a foot from the lop: having my gun 

 with me at the time I took the opportunity of putting a stop to the career of one, the 

 other escaping. My idea is that they were out on a birdnesting expedition. I have 

 strong suspicious that amongst their many other delinquencies rats not unfrequently 

 take to the hedges to search for eggs, as where they abound I have frequently found, in 

 closely-clipped fences, nests with the eggs abstracted, and in places where 1 am certain 

 no prying birdnester had been. I recollect very well, as a boy, when stopping at an 

 old country house in this county, great complaints were made about the rats stealing 

 the nuts from a row of fine old filbert-trees in the garden ; a bank near these trees was 

 a great summer haunt of these pests, and was tuunelled in every direction with iheir 

 burrows: the gardener, who kept a gun ready loaded for the purpose, was in the habit 

 of shooliiig them as they sal perched on the boughs of the filbert-lrees. — John, 

 Cordeaux ; Great Coles, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, April d, 1866. 



[See also ' Letters of llusticiis,' p. 119, where is given a rather detailed account of 

 a rat's climbing when pursued by a weasel, which at lust killed it. — £. Newman.} 



