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OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMMON FIELD VOLE OF 



THESSALY. 



By the Editor. 



Very little attention seems to have been paid to the smaller 

 mammals of Greece, if we consider how little has been published 

 concerning them. Indeed the literature dealing with the Verte- 

 brate fauna of that country is of the scantiest nature, and relates 

 chiefly to the Birds, of which no very recent account has 

 appeared. 



The Greeks are not naturalists by taste or inclination, and, 

 to judge by the present state of the Zoological Museum at Athens, 

 there would seem to be few collectors, and still fewer modern 

 observers, from whom any reliable information of this kind is to 

 be obtained. 



During a recent visit to Athens, and to Larissa, the capital of 

 Eastern Thessaly, I lost no opportunity of interrogating the 

 natives as to the birds and beasts to be met with, and was every- 

 where struck with the ignorance displayed on this subject, and 

 the general indifference which prevailed respecting it. 



It was not until we reached the great plain of Larissa, where 

 a plague of Field Voles has been for some time manifest, that we 

 encountered those who could impart some information on at least 

 one small indigenous mammal, namely, that which was causing 

 such mischief and pecuniary loss to the resident land-owners. 

 That it was a Vole (Arvicola) of some sort was certain ; but as to 

 the precise species some difference of opinion had been expressed. 



Dr. Gennadius, the Director of the Department of Agriculture 

 in Greece, in an article entitled " Les Campagnols en Thessalie," 

 published in the * Journal d' Agriculture Pratique' (March 19th, 

 1892), wrote: "Les campagnols de la Thessalie paraisient etre 

 indigenes et appartiennent selon toute probabilite a l'espece de 

 Savi, Arvicola ou Microtus Savii." 



When Prof. Loeff ler, on the recommendation of M. Pasteur, 

 was invited last year, by the Greek Government, to visit Thessaly 

 for the purpose of endeavouring to combat the plague of Voles 

 there, by inoculating them with the bacillus typhi murium, he was 

 under the impression that the species might be identical with that 

 which had some time previously devastated parts of Germany, 



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