PLAGUE OF FIELD VOLES. 167 



Restrictions upon the destruction of birds of the hawk tribe — 

 which might be protected by their inclusion in the scheduled list 

 of the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880 — and of the Stoat and 

 Weasel seem advisable. Plantations where the birds of prey 

 might roost in the vicinity of hill pastures would appear worthy 

 of recommendation. 



As regards the immediate cause of the present outbreak of the 

 plague, I am inclined to lay considerable stress upon the fact of 

 the unusual "roughness" of pastures in the winter 1890-91, and 

 to the mildness of the weather at that time, whereby the Voles, 

 always more or less present, gained an extraordinary advantage in 

 the shape of shelter from their natural enemies, and in facilities 

 for breeding. In Fleming's * History of British Animals,' an old 

 but excellent authority, this Vole is said (p. 23) to " multiply 

 prodigiously in certain seasons." The suddenness of the appear- 

 ance of the plague seems undoubtedly to point to some climatic 

 cause, and the previous outbreak in Roxburgh in 1875, when, by 

 the way, the plague was neither so extensive, nor did it so rapidly 

 increase, was preceded by somewhat similar climatic circum- 

 stances. The suddenness of the departure of the plague of 

 sixteen years ago leads one to hope that a similar sudden relief 

 may be experienced at present ; according to general report, the 

 plague of 1875 disappeared immediately after a snowstorm in the 

 spring of 1876, followed by a " rough thaw," when the half-melted 

 snow was frozen into a "plate," sealing everything up. One dares, 

 however, hardly hope for the cessation of the plague by means of 

 such a cure, which in all probability would create as much havoc 

 among sheep as among voles, especially when the sheep are — as 

 in the affected districts they cannot fail to be — in an abnormally 

 poor condition. Should relief in some shape or other not soon 

 appear, the prospects of the farmers whose pastures have suffered 

 from the plague are dismal in the extreme. — Robert F. Dudgeon 

 (The Grange, Kirkcudbright, Feb. 9, 1892). 



Mr. James Inglis Davidson's Report on the Plague oj Field Mice 

 or Voles at present affecting certain districts in the Counties 

 of Selkirk, Peebles, and Lanark. 



I have made extensive inquiries as to the plague of Voles 

 which at present infest certain districts in the counties of Selkirk, 



