The Plague oj Field Mice, by Sir Walter Elliot. 463 



In the letter quoted above, from Mr Carr-Ellison,* be stated 

 incidentally that be bad "once nearly lost all tbe beecbes in a 

 plantation where tbe ground had been planted about three years, 

 and was full of long grass. The young beeches were eaten 

 round just above the earth, the sweet bark being entirely 

 stripped off." 



In all these instances the voles exhibited a preference for de- 

 ciduous trees (tbe holly excepted). But it is not always so. 



In a graphic account of some plantations on the estate of 

 Rannoch, in Perthshire, obligingly communicated by Sir Robert 

 Menzies, he states that the pines only suffered, while the hard- 

 wood trees were spared. " In one instance 100 acres, and in 

 another 40 acres were planted in 1848 and 1855, with Scotch 

 fir and larch, intermixed with oak, ash, plane, elm, beech, and 

 Spanish chesnuts. Early in tbe winter of 1863-4, tbe mice 

 attacked the Scotch firs in both plantations simultaneously, eat- 

 ing away the bark, and sometimes the wood all round, as high 

 as they could reach, which, assisted by the heather and long 

 grass, was from six inches to a foot. The Scotch firs only were 

 attacked, and it was difficult to distinguish those that were in- 

 jured from those that bad escaped in the long grass, which con- 

 cealed the gnawed places, in this respect shewing distinctly the 

 difference between the work of mice, and that of rabbits, the 

 latter being visible at once." 



After numerous attempts to get rid of them had failed, 

 the following expedient was adopted : — " In the month of 

 February, half-a-ton of half-inch draining tiles were laid 

 down separately throughout the plantations, and a tea-spoon- 

 ful of oatmeal was placed in each, which was soon dis- 

 covered, and eaten by the mice. Phosphorus paste was then 

 added to the meal, and latterly small quantities of arsenic. The 

 plan succeeded perfectly, and in a very short time they were 

 all destroyed. As food became scarce the survivors began to 

 eat their companions that had been poisoned, and thus were 

 poisoned in turn. Their skeletons picked clean, were found 

 under the grass in all directions. No dogs were poisoned, nor 

 did any other accident occur." 



' ' Neither of the plantations have been visited by the voles again, 

 nor do the trees seem much the worse for the severe thinning 

 * Supra p. 458. 



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