ORI5ER HODENTIA. HI 



In some seasons, the Campagnols have been known to 

 increase in an extraordinary degree, and by biting the straw 

 asunder they lower the grain to within their reach, and by 

 these means will sometimes destroy the whole produce of a 

 field, and then proceed in their destructive office to another. 

 Though they prefer corn to other food, they will nevertheless 

 attack the roots of grass in meadows, and those of plants, 

 as well as nuts, and other fruit in gardens, fyc. 



Whatever may be the temporary cause of the excessive 

 multiplication of species sometimes so banefully excited, 

 especially among the insects, there is a providential and 

 paternal care by the Author of all things exercised cer- 

 tainly by secondary agency in favour of the whole mass of 

 his creatures; the undue multiplication of locusts and other 

 animals which we happily in this climate only know by 

 relation and history, if continued according to the mathe- 

 matical ratio of ordinary increase, would soon depopulate 

 the world; but ordinary anticipations and calculations cease 

 when special interposition becomes necessary. Thus we 

 find, in regard to the present species, that when the produce 

 of the summer fails them the quicker, in consequence of 

 their extraordinary multiplication, they are driven to the 

 revolting alternative of destroying one another. 



France seems to be particularly subject to what may be 

 called the plague of mice of this description ; and though 

 found in particular provinces at particular times, a square 

 of not less than forty leagues has been not unfrequently 

 known to suffer to a most pernicious degree in one season. 



The burrows of these animals, which serve both as 

 retreats and depositories for their stores, are not spacious 

 or deep, but they divide them into two or three apartments, 

 and inhabit them gregariously. The galleries occupied by 

 several families or small colonies are not contiguous ; there 

 is always a space between them. If the inhabitants of one 

 burrow abandon it or perish, others are not found to occupy 



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