fLAGUE OF FIELD VOLES. 165 



Various means have been attempted to destroy the vermin ; 

 pits and trenches dug and traps set where the Voles are most 

 abundant have been found useless. Several farmers have carried 

 out organised raids with men provided with spades (sticks being 

 worthless for purposes of destruction) and accompanied by dogs, 

 and although thousands of Voles have been killed in this way, 

 little appreciable difference in the numbers seen is said to be 

 noticeable. Burning seems comparatively effective, especially 

 where a mass of the Voles can be surrounded, and the patches of 

 ground set fire to on several sides simultaneously. The Common 

 Crow has been observed in summer to pick out the nests and 

 destroy the young. 



Dumfries. — There may be said to be three separate districts 

 affected with the plague in Dumfriesshire : (1) In the north-east 

 portion of the county, in the parish of Eskdalemuir, and the upper 

 portion of the parish of Westerkirk, it is very general ; I should 

 say some 20,000 acres are here more or less seriously affected. 

 (2) In the upper portion of Annandale in the neighbourhood of 

 Moffat, more especially on its western side, nearly every hill farm 

 is suffering from the plague. The area affected in this district 

 I put at 12,000 to 15,000 acres. (3) In a third area, extending 

 from Queensberry Hill on the east to the vicinity of Thornhill on 

 the west, about 15,000 acres are infested. 



The report I have already made in relation to the circum- 

 stances of the plague, its cause, and suggestions for the destruction 

 of the Voles, under the heading Koxburgh, applies in every 

 particular to Dumfriesshire. The boggy land is almost totally 

 destroyed, sheep are being removed from many hirsels, and hand- 

 feeding at great expense is being resorted to. Unlike Roxburgh- 

 shire, the plague does not appear to have visited Dumfriesshire, 

 except in one parish on the Roxburgh border, in 1875. The 

 Voles are reported, it is worthy of note, in the summer of 1889 

 to have infested in enormous quantities the low-lying pastures 

 in the vicinity of Closeburn, to have remained during 1890, 

 and to have disappeared, probably migrating to the neighbouring 

 hills, where they now abound, in 1891. The grass, I may 

 mention, in the pasture fields was unusually abundant during 

 the summers 1889 and 1890, and when eaten bare in 1891, the 

 vermin disappeared; this fact apparently confirms the opinion 

 I have already alluded to, that there is a traceable connexion 



