MAMMALS. 43 



the soil, each pair having a special nest to themselves. 

 Three, four, or even more litters per year ; four to ten 

 young in each litter. Its favourite food consists of 

 roots, young shoots of grass, etc., and the tender bark 

 of shrubs, but nothing of vegetable nature comes 

 amiss. Specially destructive in permanent pasture.] 

 , Remedies, (a) Preventive measures. Protection 

 of its natural enemies (weasel, stoat, polecat, fox, 

 hedgehog, owls, buzzards, kestrels, the smaller sea- 

 gulls). Catching in traps, etc., in the spring, when the 

 voles are only present in small numbers. 



(b) Destructive measures, which should be as gene- 

 rally used as possible in infested districts. If a field 

 has been completely devastated, or the crop is over ; 

 (1) Working the soil with a spiked roller; (2) Partial 

 inundation of the lower-lying fields. If it is desired 

 to kill the voles and spare the crop as well, the fol- 

 lowing means may be recommended : (1) The digging 

 of cylindrical holes six inches across and two feet 

 deep, especially at the margins of the fields and in the 

 furrows, as well as — at harvest time — on any foot- 

 paths that may be found. The voles fall into these 

 holes, cannot get out again, and are starved. (2) The 

 employment of poisons. (Care must be taken that 

 no children or domestic animals are poisoned.) Phos- 

 phorus paste is best. 



Fig. 25. — The Soiitliern Field Vole [Aroicdla, arvalis). 



The Sonthem Field Vole (A. arvalis) plays the same destructive part 

 on the Continent that the preceding form does here (Fig. 25). Bemediee 

 — see above. 



