Vermin of the Farm. 
217 
destroy a mucli larger number of mice than could be captured 
one at a time in any form of trap yet invented. Any one wbo 
has stood by to watch the result when a wheat-rick is being 
“ ferreted ” cannot have failed to observe what consternation is 
caused amongst the rats and mice as soon as the ferret has tra- 
versed some of the “ runs.” They show themselves then in all 
directions, and many a one falls a victim to an eager terrier, or 
to a well-aimed blow from a bystander, which, but for the inter- 
ference of the ferret, would never have been seen. The weasel 
is to the mouse what the ferret is to the rat — an inveterate foe, 
and its presence in a stackyard ought to be welcomed, instead 
of being looked upon with a suspicion which too often results in 
its untimely death. 
The common house mouse, though doubtless the best known 
and most numerous of its family, is not the only species of the 
genus Iftts which infests the farm, garden, and young plantations, 
and does more or less injury of one kind or another to the agri- 
culturist. There are the harvest mouse, Mits messorius, the 
tiniest of British quadrupeds, with the exception of the lesser 
shrew (8orex minutus, Linn.) ; the long-tailed field mouse, Mus 
sylvaticus ; and the field voles, Arvicola agrestis, and A. glareolus. 
The last named are often called field-mice, and the peculia- 
rities of structure and mode of life which distinguish them from 
the true mice are not generally recognised except by professed 
naturalists. In order to show clearly what these differences 
are, we give figures of a typical mouse, the long-tailed field- 
mouse (p. 218), and the short-tailed vole (p. 222). On com- 
parison, it will be seen that the mouse has a pointed muzzle, 
large prominent ears, and a long naked tail, while the vole has a 
blunt rounded muzzle, short ears almost hidden in the fur, and 
a short hairy tail. A more minute inspection will show that the 
dentition also is different. As regards colour, the long-tailed 
field mouse is a reddish brown or sandy colour above, and white 
beneath, the line of demarcation between these two colours 
being very noticeable. The short-tailed vole is grey-brown 
above and pale grey beneath, the two shades of colour merging 
so gradually as to cause the animal at a little distance to appear 
almost uniform in colour. The habits of mice and voles are 
quite different ; the former frequenting houses, farm buildings, 
stables, granaries, and ricks, the latter living in the open fields, 
where they burrow and form runs in all directions. 
The long-tailed field-mouse, although found dwelling in 
stacks in smaller numbers than the house mouse, is more often 
to be met with in kitchen-gardens, nursery-grounds, hedge- 
