The Plague of Field Mice, by Sir Walter Elliot. 453 



welcome relief, until the luxuriant growth of summer restores 

 them to plenty. 



The importance of these early grasses to flocks emaciated by 

 previous scanty fare, at a time when the ewes gravid with young, 

 require more than ordinary nourishment to enable them to rear 

 their lambs, explains how disastrous any diminution of their still 

 scanty food might prove, whether from severity of weather or 

 other unusual cause, such as the swarming of the voles. 



Early in the year 1876 rumours were rife, of great numbers of 

 field mice having made their appearance on several of the hill 



Ettrick Shepherd uses it, p. 268. But Malcolm of Burnfoot, p. 331, says, 

 " Moss begins to grow in February ; and sheep eat it in the same manner as 

 they do ling." Hogg also mentions "a short bluish grass, called moss- 

 prie or sword-grass," -p. 268, perhaps Molinia carulea ? The term prie is 

 applied to several kinds of grass, as will be shown. 



iv. Beers-hair, Scirpus cjespitosus, appears rather later than the pre- 

 ceding kind, with which it is sometimes confounded. (Johns. 203-4). 



Bent, is a generic term : " a coarse kind of grass growing on hilly ground," 

 according to Jamieson, of which several sorts are distinguished by shepherds. 



v. Bent-grass is Agrostis vulgaris growing abundantly on drier pastures. 

 (Johns. 211). 



vi. Stool-bent, Rose-bent ; Juncus squarrosus, common on all our moors, 

 affording a good early bite to sheep in spring ; they are said also to dig out 

 the roots (Johns. 199). 



vii. Broad-bent, Flying -bent ; Molinia cjerulea, common on bogland. 

 (Johns. 212). It soon dries, and the leaves are blown away by the wind. 

 The sheep eat it for two or three weeks in spring, and then only sparingly, 

 when nothing better offers, but it makes excellent bog-hay, and if cut early, 

 is easily won. 



viii. Wire-bent, Black-bent ; Nardus stricta ; also applied to Aira 

 flexuosa, abundant on the moors in summer. (Johns. 208). It is useful 

 when it first sprouts, but it soon dries, and is then neglected by the sheep. 



Spret, spretty-grasses, a general term for the succulent products of 

 meadow or bog-land, but chiefly for the different rushes (Juncus) which are 

 cut for bog-hay. The word is variously written sprat, spreat, spret, sprot, 

 and has been derived from the Anglo-Saxon sprauta—a, twig, but better 

 from the Icelandic sprott, a reed. (Jamieson). It seems also to be connected 

 with esparto, the local name of Macrochloa tenacissima, the leaves of which 

 are so largely imported for making paper. Spart is rendered by H alii well, 

 " the dwarf rush of the northern counties," which Prior (Botanical Names of 

 British Plants) writes spart-grass (p. 218 avA spurt- grass (p. 221)- Scirpus 

 lacustris, the bulrush, deducing it from the Ang. -Saxon Spyrtan, which is 

 from the Latin, sporta — a basket made of rushes, or from twigs of Spartium 

 — broom. 



