22i 
VemJiin of the Farfit. 
on whlcli thd slieep depended in spring, causing serious losS to 
the farmers by impoverishment and death of stock.' 
Now again in the present year (1892), we hear of an alarming 
increase of these little pests in the South of Scotland, where it 
is reported that this plague is especially serious along the 
northern boundary of Dumfriesshire, east of Thornhill, and in 
the north-west of Roxburgh, while the border districts in the 
south of Selkirk, Peebles, and Lanark, and the parishes of 
Carsphairn and Dairy in the extreme north of the Stewartry 
of Kirkcudbright, are also reported to be more or les? affected. 
In Roxburgh and Dumfries, the plague is estimated to have 
extended over an area of from 80,000 to 90,000 acres. 
A preponderance of opinion amongst farmers is reported, 
tracing the cause of the present outbreak to the scarcity of owls, 
kestrels, weasels, and other so-called vermin. All these animals 
are to be ranged among the natural enemies of the mice, and 
even crows may be placed in the same category. 
History sometimes curiously repeats itself, and it may be 
here noted that the statement made by Childrey as to the 
assemblage of owls when the field-mice swarmed in Essex in 
1580, has received confirmation during the present year in the 
South of Scotland. Local observers report that since the great 
increase of voles was noticed there, the short-eared owl (Otus 
brachyotus) has become much more numerous on the hill-fanns, 
and that many pairs have, contrary to precedent, remained to 
breed. 
A climatic cause of very considerable importance is also 
pointed out in the fact that the peculiarly luxuriant hill growth 
in the winter of 1890-91, coupled with the mildness of that 
season, in Scotland, afforded the voles unusual advantages in 
the shape of food and shelter from their natural enemies, and 
favoured their increase (Report, l.c.). 
In view of the fact that a Departmental Committee of the 
Board of Agriculture has been appointed to inquire into the 
cause and origin of the plague, and to consider the best means 
of preventing further mischief and consequent loss to agricul- 
turists in the districts affected, it will be well to suspend judg- 
ment until the report of the Committee has appeared. 
Damage to young trees in enclosed plantations has also been 
observed, but this, as suggested by Major Craigie, may, perhaps. 
' See British Association Reports 1878, .and Nature, August 29, 1878, 
p. 483. See also Elliott, Proc. Berwick Nat. Clnh., vol. viii. p. 447. 
* Reports to the Board of Agriculture on the Plague of Field Mice or Voles 
in the South of Scotland, 1892. 
