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Some account of the Plague of Field Mice in the Border 

 Farms, in 1876-7, with Observations on the Genus 

 Arvicola in general. By Sir Walter Elliot, F.R.S., 

 F.L.S., &c 



The animals forming the fourth order* of the mammalia, 

 although timid and defenceless, " a feeble folk," are neverthe- 

 less capable of doing much mischief and of causing serious 

 damage to mankind. Armed with two pair of adze-like incisors 

 they are able to cut through wood, and even the softer metals, 

 and to inflict considerable injury on fields, woods, and gardens. 

 Hence the name of Glires proposed by Linnaeus for the order 

 (from glis, a dormouse), has been changed by later systematists, 

 into that of Rodents or Gnawers. 



Breeding often in the year and producing several young at a 

 birth, they multiply with great rapidity, becoming very destructive 

 where the supply of food is unfailing, as near human habitations 

 or in places where suitable sustenance is abundant. Even where 

 these conditions are less favourable, and their depredations are 

 not so constant, they often prove highly injurious. To say 

 nothing of the damage done by rabbits, hares, squirrels, &c, the 

 North of Europe suffers from migrations of countless swarms of. 

 Lemmings, while some parts of our own country are invaded at 

 intervals by swarms of Field-Mice, which, issuing from their 

 usual haunts, disperse themselves over pastures and plantations, 

 and devour everything edible that comes in their way. 



These belong to the genus Arvicola of Naturalists, three species 

 of which inhabit Great Britain — the Water Eat {A. ainphibius), 

 the Red or Bank Vole (A. glareolus), and the Field Vole {A 

 agrestis).\ They are distinguished from the true mice (genus 

 Mus) by their stouter body, thicker head, obtuse muzzle, small 

 * Of Linnaeus, Sys. Nat. 



t Continental Naturalists call them Campagnols, which Dr Fleming altered 

 to Vole, a change approved by Macgillivray (Nat. Lib. vii., 260) " although," 

 he observes, "it has no meaning." But it may appropriately be derived 

 from the French voter, "to plunder, to rifle, to strip." The name does not 

 occur in the standard English dictionaries (as Johnson, Richardson, Halli- 

 well), but Jamieson gives it as an Orkney name for "the short-tailed mouse," 

 on the authority of Barry's Orkney, and suggests it may be derived from the 

 Saxon wold. Baikie and Heddle merely cite the Orkney name as " Vole" or 

 " Vole moused (Nat. Hist. Ork., 1848). 



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