The Plague of Field Mice, by Sir Walter Elliot. 451 



of gestation of the rodents is only from three to six weeks,* and 

 that of the vole is probably among the shortest, there is nothing 

 improbable in the popular idea. And so with regard to the 

 greater number of young produced and brought to maturity, the 

 female being furnished with eight mammae, and even occasionally 

 more, she may easily rear the larger number under exceptional 

 circumstances. 



The interest excited by the swarms of Field Mice that made 

 their appearance in 1876, arose less from the unusual character 

 of the phenomenon than from its bearing on the welfare of the 

 hill sheep, and the profits of the farmer. To persons unac- 

 quainted with rural affairs, the connection between the arrival of 

 such puny visitors and the flocks that range the mountain slopes, 

 may not be very apparent. A slight sketch of the habits of the 

 Cheviot sheep will show how disastrous such an invasion might 

 have proved had it not been confined within comparatively 

 narrow limits. 



The hardy flocks bred on the higher Border hills retain much 

 of their wild nature, and depend almost wholly on natural in- 

 stinct in seeking their daily food. The flock or Mrsel on a large 

 farm forms itself into three, four, or more divisions called cuts, 

 each keeping to its own range of pasture, and feeding gradually 

 upwards to its resting place for the night near the top. If a 

 stranger or other unusual object interrupts the even tenor of their 

 way, the first to perceive the intruder stamps with its foot, and 

 utters a sort of hiss, on which the whole cut takes the alarm, and 

 runs off, but always keeping upwards. 



During the summer months they range over the whole hill 

 side within their limits, cropping the tender shoots of the heather, 

 and browsing on the moss, ling, deers-hair, and other favourite 

 grasses,f on which they thrive and become fat. As winter ap- 

 proaches, and vegetation slackens, the bents, and stronger hill 

 grasses become dry and sapless, and the sheep betake themselves 

 to the lay or lea grasses, which, under the general name of spret, 

 flourish on the laud lower down. This lea land, perhaps once 



* Victor Fatio., Deser. de la Faune de Vertebres de la Suisse, 1869. Vol. 

 i , p. 152. Also, Bell's Brit. Quad 1874. pp. 290, 314, 325, 335, 345, &c. 



t These names, and thobe that follow, employed by the shepherds, -will be 

 explained. 



