V 





THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol. XL] OCTOBER, 1887. [No. J30. 



ON THE BANK VOLE, ARVICOLA GLAKEOLUS (Schreber). 



By the Editok. 



Plate V. 



The variation both in regard to size and colour which is 

 observable in the Voles formerly led to the inference that there 

 were many more species in this country than are now known to 

 exist here. Thus the Irish naturalist, Thompson, described a 

 Vole of which specimens were obtained in Perthshire, at 

 Megarnie Castle, and subsequently at Abei-arder, in Inverness- 

 shire (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1841, p. 270), and which he named 

 Arvicola neglecta, under the impression that it was a distinct 

 species. Baron de Selys Longchamps also, in an article entitled 

 " Distribution Geographique des Campagnols en Europe," de- 

 scribed another, under the name of Arvicola britannicus (' Revue 

 Zoologique,' 1847, p. 307), which was thought at the time to 

 differ from the now well-known Arvicola agrestis (Linn.), to 

 which species, however, both of these have since been referred by 

 Professor Blasius and other writers. Bellamy also, in his 

 ' Natural History of South Devon ' (1839), described and figured 

 a Vole under the name of Arvicola hirta (p. 369), which, both 

 from the description given as well as from the figure (wherein 

 the tail appears to be much too short for A. glareolus), would 

 seem to be merely a variety of A. agrestis. 



It is now pretty well ascertained that only three species of 

 Vole are indigenous to the British Islands, namely, the Water 

 ZOOLOGISX. — OCT. 1887. 2 F 



