VOLES, 



9 



and heather, followed by active pursuit of the vermin by 

 men using wooden spades and assisted by dogs. 



Light wooden spades are recommended, because the voles 

 dart about so rapidly that it is very difficult to hit them with 

 a stick. "It is hardly necessary to point out that the pro- 

 prietor of the land should be informed as soon as anyone 

 else, because his keepers and other servants might be use- 

 fully employed in assisting to prevent what amounts, if un- 

 checked, to a common calamity upon all classes connected 

 with land. 



"When plantations of limited extent are attacked, pitfalls^ 

 wider at the bottom than at the top, and about i8 inches 

 deep, should be dug. The voles fall into these and cannot 

 escape, and the ground is soon cleared of them in this way." 



The Committee further insisted in the strongest possible 

 way on the necessity of discrimination in the destruction of 

 what is known to gamekeepers as vermin. The birds that 

 prey upon mice do not generally attack game ; buzzards, owls 

 of all sorts, kestrels, and the smaller seagulls should be 

 strictly preserved, and though it is sometimes necessary to 

 kill down sparrow-hawks, this ought on no account to be 

 done by the cruel pole-trap, which captures all species 

 indiscriminately. 



Weasels are determined enemies to mice of all sorts, and 

 the injury they do to game has been greatly exaggerated.''' 

 They should certainly be left unmolested on hill farms, 

 though it is perhaps hopeless to plead for the more mis- 

 chievous stoat. But it must be remembered that exclusive 

 reliance cannot be placed on these natural checks. Many 

 witnesses before the Committee attributed the prodigious 

 multiplication of voles to rigorous game preservation. 



*'The Editor, a considerable portion of whose life has been spent in the fields, has never 

 seen a weasel attack adult rabbits or hares, or any of the game birds. Young rabbits 

 and leverets are occasionally killed, more rarely the downy young of pheasants and 

 partridges. The weasel is an inveterate mouser and ought to be encouraged and presen-ed. 

 As much cannot be said of the stoat. — Editor. 



