The Plague of Field Mice, by Sir Walter Elliot. 449 



store of winter food. The burrows are kept scrupulously clean, 

 their droppings being- deposited in little heaps outside. All 

 around, their tortuous runs are seen on or near the surface, show- 

 ing where they have been foraging. An obliging correspondent 

 has sent the subjoined sketch of one of these places, observed 

 near Auchenbreck, in Dumfriesshire. " Their roads," he states, 

 " as you will perceive, form a net work, and run sometimes a 



little below the ground, but generally on the surface, among the 

 upper roots of the grasses. The little dots on the sides of the 

 runs represent small holes, an inch or two long, made solely, I 

 should think, for the purpose of getting food by the way. In 

 this way the grass roots, in many places, have been quite 

 destroyed." 



Its diet is principally herbivorous, consisting of roots, young 

 shoots of grass, the tender bark of shrubs, &c. It particularly 

 affects the delicate white stems, rising immediately out of the 

 earth, but in times of scarcity nothing green comes amiss to it. 

 When pressed, it is said to devour insects, and even its own 

 kind* 



Its habits are diurnal, and it may be seen running about all 

 day, but in greater numbers in the evening. Another intelligent 

 and accurate correspondent, describing their ways, says, "it 

 takes a very quick eye to observe them in rough ground, as they 

 run with such rapidity, that they seem to disappear like a streak, 

 as it were ; the movement is so quick that there is hardly time to 



* Prof. Bell observed it to be partial to insects in captivity, — Britisb Quad 

 325. Dr Sharp, one of our foremost Scottish Coleopterists, has remarked 

 that where voles are common, beetles are scarce, — M.S. 



