The Bank Vole 2 4 3
fond of drilling experimental holes in the flower beds. These are made in a
single night, and are only ‘ try holes,’ as the burrower is never ‘ at home ’ when
we dig them up next day. The Voles just go down to examine a root, and in
nine cases out of ten do not touch it. In the tenth case you have to lament the
loss of some choice lily or other bulbiferous plant. In confinement I have found
them wonderfully smart, active, and bright little creatures. They are full of
resources and mischief. Two which I confined in a cage which I considered
unbreakable, and in which I had kept Orkney and Field Voles for months,
escaped in ten minutes, and I had to catch more specimens. Like mice and
unlike the majority of Voles, they will bite on the smallest provocation. I f caught
in a trap with the Field Vole, the latter has no chance : it is killed and eaten
without ceremony. With a second lot of Bank Voles taken in my garden in the
spring of 1904 I was more successful, and kept them for two months, when I
allowed them to escape. I used to keep them under a glass shade on my table,
and it amused me to watch their pretty little ways as I wrote or painted. These
became very tame, but never took food from my hand as Orkney and Field
Voles would do. They were always fighting and chasing one another about,
sitting up polishing their glossy coats, eating quantities of food and wasting an
equal amount, playing games of hide-and-seek in and out of the grass, hopping about
like the restless hedgesparrow, climbing nimbly about their miniature bushes, and
behaving with the delightful inconsequence of a thoroughly happy and volatile
disposition.
Mr. Douglas English sends me some delightful notes of his pets and their
habits.
‘ Post mortem,’ he says, ‘ the main difference between Bank and Field Voles
lies in their dentition ; living it lies in their character. In ways, attitudes, and build
the Bank Vole forms a connecting link between the Voles and the mice.
‘ Large ears, large eyes, pointed muzzle, and estimable tail incline one
naturally to expect mouse attitudes, and, so far as general agility is concerned,
one’s expectations are justified.
‘ The Bank Vole lacks the élan of the wood mouse ; yet he will jum p for
preference on the flat, whereas the Field Vole never under normal conditions
leaves the ground. An open-topped glass tank with seven-inch walls is sufficient
confinement for the latter. The Bank Vole thinks little of such a prison. His
fourth or fifth leap lands him on its parapet. I have known one escape from a
square biscuit tin (sides 94 in.), which argues no small skill as a gymnast.