BRITISH MAMMALS 
witnessed one attacking a young rabbit, about six times the bulk of its 
aggressor, which had been badly injured by a mowing machine. 
A large and brightly coloured form of the Bank Vole, known as the 
Skomer Vole (Evotomys hercynicus skomerensis, Millais), confined to 
Skomer Island, off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, and considered by 
Mr. Millais as only a sub-species, is figured in the tail-piece sketch. 
This is considerably larger than the Common Bank Vole, measuring 
about 4^ inches in length of head and body and about 2f 6 inches in the tail. 
The colour of the upper parts is a fine orange brown, becoming duller 
and paler on the cheeks and flanks and greyish white tinged with buff on 
the underparts. The Skomer Vole was first discovered by Mr. Drane of 
Cardiff when he visited the island of that name in 1897. 
At this time, according to Mr. Millais [Mammals of Great Britain and 
Ireland), Mr. Drane " caught several specimens and partially described 
them in a paper which he read before the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, and 
which was published in their ' Transactions.' " 
Later, in 1906, the Skomer Vole was fully described by the late Major 
Barrett-Hamilton, who gives it full specific rank. 
Mr. Drane observed that the Skomer and Bank Vole are much alike in 
their general character and habits, and though both frequent the neighbour- 
hood of farmsteads, the former shows a decided preference for such 
localities, where it may be found in numbers in and around the buildings. 
Winter stores of turnips are a favourite resort of the Skomer and Bank Vole. 
Mr. Drane found that the Skomer Vole bred freely in captivity, five 
specimens, which soon grew tame, having produced forty-seven young in 
one season. 
A comparatively large race of Bank Vole, possessing rather short ears 
and tail {Evotomys alstoni, Barrett-Hamilton and Hinton), inhabits the Island 
of Mull, Scotland. Specimens were first taken there by Mr. R. W. 
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