WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



company, but she flew straight at her, and 

 the fight was so furious that I had to 

 remove the stranger for fear she would be 

 killed. 



Charming and fascinating as the field vole is, 

 it must not be forgotten what a serious matter 

 it is when the little creature increases too much. 

 It can multiply so fast that were there nothing 

 to check it, it could in the course of one summer 

 overrun the country, eating the land bare 

 before it. It is to the owls, hawks, and weasel 

 that we owe it, in great measure, that a mouse 

 plague is really rare. This is why it is such a 

 mistake to kill the vole-eaters — ^they are our 

 friends and helpers. By not interfering with 

 them we preserve the ' Balance of Nature,' 

 and then no animal gets too plentiful; there 

 is just the right number of each, and so all 

 is well, no kind being plentiful enough to do 

 harm. 



(The Meadow Vole or Grass Mouse of Northern 

 Europe, which was named Mus agrestis by Linnseus, 

 has been found by modern systemists to consist of 

 a number of forms, no less than eleven species and 

 sub-species being recognised in the British Isles. 

 As only two of these are found on the mainland, 

 the rest belonging to the Orkneys and to the Hebrides, 

 284 



