366 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Kingsbury. Many years ago, when residing in tliat parish, we 

 found the Bank Vole not at all uncommon in certain sheltered 

 spots, in dry ditches and hedge-banks, and about the hollows of 

 old tree-roots. We used to catch them alive in ordinary mouse- 

 traps and keep them in a Dormouse-cage, and very interesting 

 pets they were. Now and then the cats used to bring one in 

 freshly caught, but they much more frequently brought in the 

 Short-tailed Field Vole {Arvicola agrestis), of which one cat, a 

 famous mouser, sometimes brought in three or four a day, with 

 an occasional Mus sylvaticus from the kitchen-garden. On 

 examining the contents of the stomachs, of such as were brought 

 in dead in this way, we found that those of A. agrestis contained 

 a soft mass of green herbage smelling quite fresh, while those of 

 A. glareoliis and Mus sylvaticus contained a hard mass of what 

 appeared to be ground acorns, nuts, or farinaceous food, having 

 a faint sickly smell. 



In the Home counties, generally, the Bank Vole is probably 

 locally distributed, although evidence of its occurrence in Kent 

 and Surrey is not forthcoming. 



In West Sussex and on the borders of Hampshire, near 

 Petersfield, we have reason to believe that it frequents the 

 " hangers " or wooded slopes of the South Downs, for on one 

 occasion, when covert-shooting in that neighbourhood, we picked 

 up a dead specimen, which was too far decomposed to be 

 preserved. 



In the western counties of England it appears to be hardly 

 known at all,* and no information respecting it has reached us 

 from any part of Wales. No Voles of any species are mentioned 

 in the list of Mammalia given in Dillwyn's 'Materials for a 

 Fauna and Flora of Swansea' (1848). 



In Cornwall, according to Dr. Bullmore, it is not uncommon 

 in the neighbourhood of Falmouth (' Cornish Fauna,' 1886, 

 p. 5) ; and Mr. W. P. Cocks, in his " Contributions to the Fauna 

 of Falmouth " (' Naturalist,' vol. i., 1851), gives two localities 

 near Falmouth where it is found. It was to have been expected 

 tliat some additional information in regard to this species would 

 appear in the revised edition of Couch's 'Cornish Fauna,' 

 published in 1878, with the co-operation of Messrs. Brooking 



It is not mentioned in Hastings' ' Natural History of Worcestershire.' 



