VolEs. ^09 



rick, each with six to nine young ones, the nest lying in a 

 cavity from which runs diverged in every direction. Great 

 numbers were killed by the boys assisting. One little fellow 

 got seventy-nine full-grown ones for his share, and his straw- 

 hat was brimful of young ones.' 



"Their numbers, already redundant, were augmented by 

 the mild winter of 1875-6, and in the succeeding spring they 

 made their presence felt in the doomed farms. During the 

 three months from February to April they completely destroyed 

 the pasturage of the bog-land in Borthwick water, and were 

 then driven to the bents. Notwithstanding the means used for 

 their destruction, which, however, were not very skilful, the 

 swarms showed little diminution. The public journals sug- 

 gested a trial of the plan which had been so efficacious in the 

 New Forest, where holes were dug into which they fell, but 

 the hint came too late. More efficient auxiliaries appeared in 

 the shape of Hawks, Foxes, Weazels, &c., attracted by the 

 abundant prey. Buzzards, which have long been strangers to the 

 district, again made their appearance. A shepherd in Eskdale- 

 muir saw seven of the rough-legged species {Archibuteo lagopus) 

 on the wing at the same time, and the short and long-eared 

 Owls were observed in still larger numbers. By the middle of 

 April the herbage was so much impaired that the Voles them- 

 selves began to feel the want of food, and the occurrence of 

 severe frost, with a sprinkling of snow, about the middle of 

 the month, completed their discomfiture. Many died of star- 

 vation, and by the end of May they had mostly disappeared. 



" When the Committee of the Farmers' Club made their in- 

 spection, they found that fully one-third of the pasture in the 

 places visited had been destroyed. The true bog-grass espe- 

 cially, on which the sheep mainly depend in April and May, 

 had been eaten down to the roots. The ground was strewed 

 with dried stalks and blades, mixed with tufts of fur. limbs, and 



5 P 



