COMMON FIELD VOLE OE THESSALY. 143 



causing asphixiation of the inmates. Moreover, the application 

 of such a remedy would be much easier in the level plains of 

 Thessaly, where the openings of the burrows are everywhere 

 perceptible, than on the rough hill pastures of Scotland, where 

 such openings would have to be carefully looked for, and where 

 in ordinary runs the former would be dissipated long before the 

 animals could be affected. 



The burrows of the Thessalian Vole, which are about two 

 inches in diameter, and go to a depth of from eight inches to a 

 foot or more, lead to a gallery which widens out towards a 

 depression in which a nest of dry grass is formed. Several vertical 

 holes sometimes lead to the same gallery, thus facilitating escape 

 in case of need. If water were poured down one hole, the inmates 

 would bolt from another. If the fumes of bisulphide of carbon 

 were to be injected by one hole, those in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood would have to be previously stopped. Between the holes 

 well-trodden runs may be perceived, but of nothing like the length 

 of those made by A. agrestis. 



Another peculiarity remarked was, that the Thessalian Vole is 

 more nocturnal in its habits than our well-known British species. 

 It is rarely seen out in the daytime, and the food which is col- 

 lected at dusk is dragged into the holes and devoured there at 

 leisure. 



Like A. agrestis, it multiplies at an extraordinary rate. The 

 period of gestation was not precisely ascertained, but is believed 

 to be about twenty-four days, and the female will produce three 

 or four litters during the spring and early summer, each litter 

 containing from six or eight to a dozen young ones. 



As to the nature of the ground which these Voles infest, the 

 great treeless plain of Larissa in the east, like that of Trikala in 

 the west, formerly the bed of an inland sea, is now a great wheat- 

 producing district, the particular wheat grown there being much 

 esteemed for the manufacture of maccaroni, and large quantities 

 of it are exported from Volo to Naples, Genoa, and Marseilles. 

 The soil, though heavy, is in many places loamy, and its fertility 

 is doubtless increased by the inundation, during the winter 

 months, of the River Peneios. The land in this extensive plain 

 is in the hands of comparatively few proprietors, each of whom 

 owns many thousands of acres. The peasants who farm under 

 them take a share of the crops in return for their labour. But 



