234 
Vermin of the Farm. 
the middle of a flock in fields half covered with snow, where no 
grass whatever was to be seen. The sheep, however, having 
their eyes nearer to the ground, perceived the points of some 
leaves, and, scratching with their feet to obtain more, seized it 
with their teeth, even pulling up the roots with their leaves.” 
At this stage the shepherd comes to the aid of the sheep, and 
doles out the bog hay, and thus enables them to struggle on till 
the herbage revives with returning spring. The importance of 
this early herbage to flocks already emaciated by scanty fare, 
at a time, moreover, when ewes due to lamb require more than 
usual nourishment, is obvious, and it is this prospective provender 
which becomes so sorely threatened by the “ plague of mice.” 
The reader is already aware that the depredators are not 
mice, but field voles (Arvicola agrestis). They differ, as Mr. 
Harting points out, from the true mice (genus Mus) in their 
stouter body, thicker head, obtuse muzzle, small ears, and the 
tail shorter than the body, from which last-named character 
they are often called short-tailed mice. By means of their two 
pairs of adze-like incisors they are able to cut through wood, 
and to do extensive mischief in fields, woods, and gardens. The 
vole is prolific, having usually three or four litters in a year, 
with commonly five or six young at a birth. In abnormal 
seasons this rate is exceeded, and young voles may be seen as 
early as February and as late as November. The favourite 
haunts of voles are low-lying moist grass-lands and damp plan- 
tations. They form numerous tortuous burrows near the surface 
of the ground, and live in communities, though each pair have 
their own dwelling in which they bring up their young, and 
store up their hoard of winter food. Their burrows are kept 
scrupulously clean, all refuse matter being deposited in little 
heaps outside. The diet of the vole is almost entirely vegetable, 
and consists of roots, young shoots of grasses, rushes, and sedges, 
and the tender bark of shrubs. The little creature is particularly 
fond of the delicate white stems of the hillside herbage, which 
are so acceptable to mountain sheep in early spring. 
The present abundance of the pest recalls the notorious 
outbreak in the winter of 1875-76, which was made the subject 
of a communication by Sir Walter Elliot to the Berwickshire 
Naturalists’ Club. The districts specially infested were the hill 
farms on the borders of Koxburghshire, Selkirkshire, and Dum- 
friesshire, especially those adjoining the water-parting between 
Teviotdale, Eskdale, and Liddesdale. More to the west, the 
higher portions of Upper Nithsdale suffered seriously. In parts 
of the West Biding of Yorkshire, particularly in Wensleydale 
and Bedale, the pest was simultaneously troublesome. The 
