ON THE MAMMALIA OF THIS DISTRICT. 231 



tating the whole land as they passed over it. As 

 luck would have it, I had a good opportunity of 

 judging for myself, for in the spring of 1862 we 

 had a large migration right through Quickiock, 

 and for about a month the whole country swarmed 

 with them. Such a migration had not been seen 

 for many years. It is true that for the last two 

 seasons a good many had appeared on the Quick- 

 iock fells, and they say that these migrations always 

 last more or less for three years. Few are ignorant 

 of the natural history of this strange little mouse, 

 yet perhaps few have had the opportunity of seeing 

 one in a state of nature, and I shall therefore give 

 a short description of the animal itself, and proceed 

 to make some remarks on its habits, and on that 

 most singular of all phenomena in natural history, 

 its irregular migrations. The lemming is a little 

 animal not unlike the water vole in shape, but 

 much smaller, and with a very short tail, being 

 scarcely in all more than six inches long; the 

 colour above is rusty yellow, with a black streak 

 down the middle and each side of the back, much 

 fainter in some than others; belly and under sides, 

 and throat, pale yellow. The fur is beautifully soft 

 and thick, and although the skin is very thin, 

 might doubtless be put to some use by the farriers. 

 The skins are beautifully red when taken off just 

 in the early spring, but fade very much in the 



