302 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



(Zool. 1906, p. 172). Swampy woods, with the ground composed 

 of black slimy mud, covered with marsh-marigolds and clumps 

 of coarse grass, with here and there pools of water formed by the 

 rain, is one of the favourite haunts of the Bank-Vole. I once 

 trapped one in a ditch of running water in a trap intended for a 

 Water- Shrew, placed on a stone in the middle of the water, 

 showing that the Vole to reach the bait must have swum to it. 

 On planting two bulbs in pots, and putting these on the top shelf 

 of a greenhouse, I discovered shortly afterwards these had dis- 

 appeared, having been scraped out by some animal. A trap was 

 set, and a Bank- Vole caught. Now, the Vole to reach the pots 

 must have climbed quite four feet up, and the distance between 

 each shelf was a foot, and so, as there was no other means of 

 getting at the pots, the animal must have sprung from shelf to 

 shelf. Showing some skins of the Bank- Vole to a friend of mine, 

 he said he had seen some like them, only very much larger, in a 

 wood in Pembrokeshire. These might have been the Skomer 

 Vole, as Capt. Barrett-Hamilton, who described this species or 

 form, entertained hopes that it might be found on the mainland.* 

 Skomer Island is, it might be as well to state, just off Pembroke- 

 shire. Mr. Oxley Graham records a very large Bank- Vole found 

 in Kent (Zool. 1S98, p. 477), and gives the dimensions as " 6£ in. 

 from tip of nose to tip of tail ; length of tail, 2 in." He goes on 

 to say that the specimen was too decomposed to preserve. This 

 might possibly have been identical with the Skomer Vole, and, 

 as I have said before, in all probability this large Vole may 

 occur on the mainland; field naturalists visiting remote districts 

 of Wales and other parts of the country should be on the look- 

 out for it. 



:;: 'Proc. Royal Irish Academy,' vol. xxiv. sec. B, pp. 315-19 (1903). 



