67 
NOTE ON A WHITE ORKNEY VOLE 
MICROTUS ORCADENSIS, V. ALBA. 
By GEORGE ELLISON. 
The Orkney Vole (Microtus orcadensis), known locally as 
the “ Cuttick,” occurs in well-worn runs, tunnelling for long 
distances under the long grass. Mr. J. G. Millais (son of the 
famous artist) kept this form under observation from 1886 to 
(1904. He published his results in the Zoologist, for July, 1904, 
and the animal was accepted as a new species of British mammal. 
The vole is found on the mainland (Pomona), and several of 
the islands, and a sub-species differing in colour in the Island 
of Sanday. 
The accompanying photograph (Fig. 4) shows the typical 
Orkney Vole, and Fig. 3, a white variety, sent to me in Oct., 
(1917. It is the only white specimen recorded from Orkney, 
and is an immature male caught near Stromness. It measures 
33 inches from tip of nose to tip of tail. Instead of the pink 
eyes, usual in an Albino, this one had black eyes, and is possibly 
one out of a litter of several. 
It may be seen in the the Stromness Museum, together with 
some black specimens (melanic), which so far have been found 
locally, only in the Hills of Harray on the Mainland of Orkney. 
