1895.] MYODES LEMMUS. 45 

14. Food. 
When in their true homes on the mountain plateaux, the 
lemmings can hardly be said to belong to the destructive ani- 
mals. During ordinary years, but little or nothing is seen of 
them, and the injurious traces they may leave of their meals 
are too insignificant for consideration. 
During prolific years, on the other hand, they may cause 
actual destruction, both to the meadows and arable land. 
There, their food consists chiefly of grass, of which they 
principally devour those parts adjoining the roots. Therefore, 
in spring, after the wintering of the swarms, all the fields will 
be strewed over with severed bunches of grass, the lower parts of 
which have been consumed. 
The bark of young willows, too, forms welcome nourish- 
ment, and numerous bushes may be found withered from having 
the the bark at the root gnawed off during the winter. 
The damage caused is most observable in the high-lying 
tracts, such as on the mountain pastures, and on those farms 
situated highest up on the slopes of the mountains. Occasion- 
ally at such spots they may gnaw away almost all the grass, 
and, as this is cut down at the neck of the root, the sprouts 
for the coming year will be entirely destroyed, and the damage 
leave its traces for many subsequent years. They may also 
cause injury in the lowlands, although this is never so conspicu- 
ous as in the great high-lying valleys. In the great migratory 
years, the country people regard their visits as å disaster which 
they are powerless to withstand. 
If the migration takes place early in the autumn, the stand- 
ing grain crops are greatly exposed to their ravages, and when 
the sheaves are stooked or set up ou poles to dry, the lemmings 
may be seen climbing about in them, just as sparrows do in 
the *Christmas-sheaves.”1 It is mainly the oat fields that are 
1 Put out for the birds to feed on in the winter. 
