VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAN. 77 



a number of Owles, as all the shire was able to yield, whereby the 

 marsh-holders were shortly delivered from the vexation of the said 

 mice. The like of this was also in Kent. 



This reads a little like a fable or legend, and we must be 

 permitted to doubt the statement as to the cause of the 

 "murraine;" but the accuracy of the story, in the main, is 

 corroborated by the records of later occurrences of a similar 

 nature in the same region. Childrey also records this occur- 

 rence in his Britannia Baconica, 1660, p. 14. 



Similar "sore plagues of strange mice" were experienced 

 in Essex again in 1648, near Downham Market, Norfolk, in 

 1745, and again in Gloucestershire and Hampshire in 1813- 

 14.1 "VVith regard to Norfolk, the following extract is of 

 interest : — 



■ Once in about six or seven years, Hilgay, about one thousand acres, 

 is infested with an incredible number of field mice, which, like locusts, 

 would devour the corn of every kind. Invariably there follows a pro- 

 digious flight of Norway Owls, and they tarry until the mice are entirely 

 destroyed by them.'' 



Notwithstanding that both the cause and remedy of these 

 frequent outbTeaks of field mice were apparent, the de- 

 struction of their natural enemies by man still goes on. In 

 1875-76 a noted outbreak of mice occurred in the borders of 

 Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, and Dumfriesshire, also in parts 

 of Yorkshire. The abundance of the mice attracted Hawks, 

 Owls, and foxes in unusual numbers. In 1892 an alarming 

 increase of these field mice again occurred in the south of 

 Scotland. In Roxburgh and Dumfries alone the plague was 

 estimated to have extended over an area of eighty thousand to 

 ninety thousand acres. ^ A preponderance of opinion among 

 farmers was reported, tracing the cause of this outbreak to 

 the scarcity of Owls, Hawks, weasels, and other so-called 

 vermin. All these animals, and Crows also, are to be 

 ranged among the natural enemies of mice. The state- 



' See Journal of the Eoyal Agricultural Society, 1892, p. 223, and papers there 

 cited. 



" Gentleman's Magazine, 1754, Vol. 24, p. 215. 



' Report to the Board of Agriculture on the Plague of Field Mice or Voles in 

 the South of Scotland, 1892. 



