2 34 



NATURE 



\_Jan. 8, 1880 



" The Short-tailed Field Mouse (Arvicola arvalis) is 

 found throughout Europe to Siberia. Small and insigni- 

 ficant as this animal appears to be, there is scarcely a 

 species among the rodents more destructive to our fields, 

 gardens, and woods. In the corn-field, the rick-yard, the 

 granary, and in extensive plantations, its depredations are 

 often severe, and even calamitous. Of the damage effected 

 by a multitude of these animals we give a single instance. 

 In the year 1814 the whole, both of Dean and New 

 Forest, appeared to be largely stocked with mice ; at least 

 wherever the large furze-brakes in the open parts had 

 been burnt their holes and runs covered the surface. 

 Hayward Hill, a new plantation of about 500 acres in the 

 Forest of Dean, was particularly infested. This inclosure, 

 after being properly fenced, was planted with acorns in 

 1810, and in the following spring about one-third came 

 up, the rest of the seed having been destroyed principally 

 by mice. The young shoots of the natural hollies of the 

 district, which had been cut down to favour the plantation, 

 were not attacked by the mice in the following winter, 

 though their runs were numerous. In the autumn of the 

 succeeding year a large quantity of five years old oaks and 

 chestnuts, with ash, larch, and fir, were planted in the 

 inclosure. In the winter the destruction began, and 

 numbers of the hollies, then two, three, or more feet in 

 height, were barked round from the ground to four or five 

 inches upwards, and died. In the succeeding spring a 

 number of the oaks and chestnuts were found dead ; and 

 when they were pulled up it appeared that the roots had 

 been gnawed through two or three inches below the sur- 

 face of the ground ; many were also barked round and 

 killed, like the holly-shoots, whilst others, which had 

 been begun upon, were sickly. The evil now extended 

 to the other inclosures, and becoming very serious both 

 in Dean Forest and the New Forest, cats were turned 

 out, the bushes, ferns, rough grass, and other plants were 

 cleared oft" to expose the mice to beasts and birds of prey ; 

 poisons in great variety were laid, and seven or eight 

 different sorts of traps were set for them, some of which 

 succeeded very well. These were, however, superseded 

 by the plan of a ratcatcher, who, having been employed 

 to capture the mice, had observed, on going to work in 

 the morning, that some of them had fallen into wells or 

 pits accidentally formed, and could not get out again, 

 many of them dying from hunger or fatigue in endeavour- 

 ing to climb up the sides. Such pits were therefore tried 

 on his recommendation. They were at first made three 

 feet deep, three long, and two wide ; but these were found 

 to be unnecessarily large, and after various experiments 

 it appeared that they answered best when from eighteen 

 to twenty inches deep, about two feet in length, and a 

 foot and a half in width at the bottom, and only eighteen 

 inches long and nine wide at the top, or so wide as would 

 allow of the earth being got out of a hole of that depth, for 

 the wider they were below and the narrower above the 

 better they answered their purpose. 1 They were made 

 about twenty yards asunder, or, where the mice were less 

 numerous, thirty yards apart. Nearly 30,000 mice were 

 speedily caught by this method in Dean Forest, and in 

 the New Forest about 10,000 more. It was believed 

 that a far greater number had been taken out of the holes 

 either alive or dead by stoats and weasels, or by kites, 

 owls, crows, jays, and magpies." 



The following account of the Angler (Lophius pisca- 

 toriiis), a curious large-headed fish belonging to the 

 family of the Lophiidae, or fishing-frogs, and a native of 

 our seas, is short, but clear and instructive : — " This 

 curious fish has the head wide, and the mouth nearly as 

 wide as the head ; the eyes are large ; the lower jaw, 

 which is the longer, is bearded or fringed all round the 

 edge, and both jaws are armed with numerous teeth ; 

 the body is narrow compared with the breadth of the 



/This Is the form adopted for the tiger-pits made by^ the Chinese in 



head, and tapers gradually to the tail. The colour of 

 the upper surface of the body is uniform brown, the 

 under surface white, and the tail, almost black. On the 

 top of the head are three long filaments; of these, two 

 are seated just above the muzzle, the other rises from the 

 back of the head. These filaments are movable in all 

 directions, especially the first, which, tapering like the 

 finest fishing-rod, ends in broad, flattened, silvery tips. 



"The angler is insatiably voracious, but it is a slow 

 swimmer ; it is formed, in fact, for taking its prey in 

 ambush. It reposes on the soft mud or sand, in some 

 favourable lurking-place, and, stirring up the mud with 



Fig. 2.— Angler (Lofhi 



its pectoral fins, thus obscures itself in a murky cloud, 

 beyond which appear its long filaments, and, especially 

 the first, with its glittering tip, offering an attractive bait 

 to other fish. Thus stationed, the creature quietly ex- 

 pects its victim. On rove the shoals of fish, eager in 

 quest of food. They pass one after another in succes- 

 sion, till at length one espies the bait. Forward the fish 

 darts, either to examine or seize the expected prize ; but 

 at that instant, aided by its broad, feet-like pectoral fins, 

 the watchful angler springs up and captures its prey." 



The fishes are generally very well illustrated, and a 

 large number of interesting species are des:ribed. 



Passing on to the invertebrates, we come first to the 

 insects, which form the weakest part of the volume ; but 

 this is perhaps of less importance as none but specialists 

 feel any interest in the bulk of the forms ; while their im- 

 mense numbers and endless variety, their strange habits, 

 and marvellous instincts can only be adequately set forth 

 where ample space can be afforded them. We pass on 

 therefore to the lower marine animals, and select as an 

 example of the way they are treated a rare British species 

 allied to the sea cucumbers, and named Synapta duvertua. 

 It was discovered in the English Channel by M. Quatre- 

 fages, who thus describes it : — 



" Imagine a cylinder of rose-coloured crystal as much a^ 

 eighteen inches long and more than an inch in diameter, 

 traversed in all its length by five narrow ribbands of white 

 silk, and its head surmounted by a living flower whose 

 twelve tentacles of purest white fall behind in a graceful 

 curve. In the centre of these tissues, which rival in their 

 delicacy the most refined products of the loom, imagine? 

 an intestine of the thinnest gauze, gorged from one end 

 to the other with coarse grains of granite, the rugged 

 points and sharp edges of which are perfectly perceptible 



