THE PLAGUE OF FIELD VOLES IN SCOTAND. 123 



Thornhill. The voles have also appeared in great numbers 

 in the parishes of Dairy and Carsphairn, in the stewartry of 

 Kirkcudbright. 



Mr. K. F. Dudgeon, at the date of his report, estimated that 

 in Koxburghshire 30,000 to 40,000 acres had been affected, of 

 which he considered 12,000 to 15,000 acres had been rendered 

 useless; in Dumfriesshire 40,000 to 50,000 acres, and in the 

 stewartry of Kirkcudbright 10,000 to 12,000 acres were described 

 by him as infested by voles. 



The Committee received no estimate of the area affected in 

 the counties of Selkirk, Peebles, and Lanark, nor had they the 

 means of verifying Mr. Dudgeon's calculation in respect to the 

 other counties affected, but an area not less than sixty miles 

 in length and from twelve to twenty miles in breadth has been 

 overrun. 



Causes of the Outbreak. — The rapid increase in the number 

 of voles to the dimensions of a plague was attributed by all the 

 witnesses examined to one of two causes, or to a combination of 

 both. The first of these consists in the character of the seasons. 

 Mr. Service called attention to the occurrence of a series of dry 

 springs in 1890, 1891, and 1892, adducing figures to show that 

 the rainfall in these seasons was very much below the average, 

 and therefore favourable, in his opinion, to the breeding of small 

 mammals. The autumn of 1890 was unusually wet, producing 

 great luxuriance of grass on the hill-pastures, which afforded 

 abundant shelter for the voles. The winter which followed, 

 though very severe in England, was a mild one in Scotland. 

 Sir Walter Elliot traced the cause of the outbreak of voles which 

 took place in 1876 to the unusual mildness of the four or five 

 winters preceding that year. 



The second cause assigned by witnesses is the destruction of 

 hawks, buzzards, owls, stoats, and weasels by persons interested 

 in the preservation of game. Major Craigie had previously stated 

 that " a preponderance of opinion amongst farmers is reported, 

 tracing the cause of the present outbreak to the scarcity of owls, 

 kestrels, hawks, weasels, and other vermin." Of the prevalence 

 of this opinion the Committee were made fully aware, nearly every 

 witness who was examined giving it as his belief that the outbreak 

 was due to the destruction of the " natural enemies" of the voles. 

 A similar view was expressed by the witnesses before the Com- 



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