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



distinguish the form of the creature." The same gentleman had 

 an opportunity of watching them in more open ground. Passing 

 through Sir F. Johnstone's park, at Westerhall, in Dumfries- 

 shire, in the summer of 1876, he saw great numbers running 

 among the grass near the road. "At one time I stopped to 

 watch them, and it was curious to see how tame and confidential 

 they became, as soon as I stood still. They chased each other 

 back and forward along their runs, and whenever they saw me 

 move, they darted into their holes, one of which they seemed 

 easily to find, they were so numerous. As soon as they thought 

 themselves safe, they wheeled round and stared up in my face, 

 with their beautiful bead-like eyes for a long time, till having 

 made up their minds that I meant them no harm, they again 

 commenced their gambols, without taking further notice of me. 

 I observed then, how greatly they vary in colour, from the 

 brown of a seal-skin jacket to a light fawn." A continental 

 naturalist describes a colony of the species that he surprised in a 

 wood in Switzerland, in somewhat similar terms, " Every in- 

 stant I saw them flying right and left, towards their holes ; some 

 would rush headlong under a root, and thus disappeared for a 

 moment under the herbage and leaves, to emerge further off and 

 nearer their home, trying by these little feints to baffle the 

 pursuit of which they were the object. Often, notwithstanding 

 what Blasius says, I have waited a long time near the opening 

 into which I had seen the animal enter, without its being willing 

 to show itself again. The underwood had been drowned, so to 

 say, by the previous rain, yet these little creatures disported 

 themselves freely through it in open day. In their alarm they 

 did not hesitate to plunge through the marsh, or to precipitate 

 themselves into a hole, half full of water."* 



As a general rule the Yole has three or four litters in a year, 

 and produces from four to eight, but usually five or six at a 

 birth. Several farmers and shepherds, however, in the hill dis- 

 tricts believe that in mild seasons they are still more prolific, 

 breeding five or six times, and rearing eight or nine young. In 

 proof of this they state that in such abnormal years, the young 

 mice are seen from February to November. Now, as the period 



* Victor Fdtio : Les campagnols du Leman, 1867, p. 18. J H. Blasius is 

 author of a Natural History of the Mammalia of Germany, Brunswick, 1857. 



