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anywhere about their runs or holes they at once leave the spot, but take their
revenge by drilling holes in the carefully mown lawns.1
Field Voles are both nocturnal and diurnal in their habits, and may often
be seen abroad by day, especially in spring, and after heavy rains which flood
them out of their holes.2 I remember one summer evening walking through
Warnham Park just before the hay was cut, and noticing the passage of Field
Voles in many directions. Their snake-like progress was easy to observe in
heavily soaked grass, so I ran and caught several in my hands and let them go
again. Unlike wood mice, this species seldom bites when taken in the hand. I
have never known the Field Vole or the Orkney Vole bite except when handled
very roughly or when mistaking one’s fingers for food. On the other hand the
Bank Vole will often bite, and is altogether a more cantankerous and aggressive
little animal.
Field Voles soon become tame if undisturbed, and may often be seen running
and chasing one another along their tortuous paths; but any sudden movement
on the observer’s part at once drives them to their holes. They soon get over
their fears, however, and will come very close and watch you with their beady
little eyes. I f handled they soon become tame, and are of a most amiable
disposition.
Those which I kept in confinement drank frequently; a neglect to supply
them with water causes death in the course of three or four days. They do
not hibernate in the strict sense of the word, for I have trapped them in frost;
but in cold weather they often sleep, for several days without touching food,
waking up and moving about again immediately a thaw comes. They are
exceedingly voracious, and the amount of food this species and the Orkney Vole
will consume is astonishing. They are said to eat almost anything in the way of
fruit, nuts, grain, young leaves, seeds, and grass, and I have found that they
enjoy almost any vegetable substance3 when hungry, but prefer sweet grass, clover,
and carrots to all other food.
Sir Walter Elliott says4: ‘ During the summer months they range over the
1 Here in Sussex Field Voles evicted from their natural home—the rough grass fields—live in the hedgerows. Their
holes may easily be recognised from those of Bank Voles by the perpendicular shaft.
2 At one time I thought o f giving illustrations of the runs and galleries and retreats o f the four species of Voles, but after
making many sketches I found that the workings of each species are so irregular and dissimilar that pictures of these would
be o f little help to the student for the purpose of identification.
3 Professor Bell and others have observed their partiality for insects, and Dr. Sharp has noticed that where Voles abound
beetles are scarce.
4 Some Account o f the Plague o f F ield Mice in the Border Farms in 1876-7 &c., p. 451.
whole hillside within their limits, cropping the tender shoots of the heather and
browsing on the moss, lin g , deeSs-hair {Scirpus cesspitosus'), and other favourite
grasses on which they thrive and become fat. As winter approaches and
vegetation slackens the bents and stronger hill-grasses become dry and sapless,
and the sheep betake themselves to the la y or lea grasses, which under the
general name of “ spret” Ju n cu s) flourish on the land lower down,’ and to this
ground the Voles also move.
They will undoubtedly bark trees, but not to the same extent as the Bank
Vole, who is the chief sinner in this respect. Reports on the Scottish Vole plagues
proved that this species would bark heather, growing larch, birch, and firs of
various kinds. They gnaw the roots and bark the trees two or three inches from
the ground; but as they are poor climbers cannot do further damage, although
this is often sufficient to kill young trees.1 During the 1892 Vole plague entire
plantations were destroyed, but I should consider this an abnormal taste on the
part of the animal owing to scarcity of food and similar to the depredations of
rabbits during severe frosts. Thus a Lincolnshire forester writes: 2 ‘When last
week, for the second time this season, the woodmen were cutting weeds among
young trees—3 ft. to 6 ft. high and planted three years ago—it was discovered that
where the nettles (second growth) were densest many of the ash, sycamore, beech,
oak, and birch, Italian poplar, &c. were completely barked round from close to
the surface of the ground to a height varying from 3 in. to 6 in. It had not been
done by rabbits; as the ground—about four acres, and a second crop—is inclosed
by ii-inch mesh netting 3^ ft. high, and not a rabbit was seen inside. But the
place was positively swarming with mice of the brown short-tailed variety, and
from the appearance of the wounds there can be no doubt that the damage has
been done by them. A curious feature of the case is that the damaged trees are
confined to those parts where the nettles and other broad-leaved rank-growing
weeds cover the ground. On other parts covered with grass, rushes, brushwood,
&c. no damage has been done. Owls and foxes, which feed largely on mice, are
preserved on the estate, and are very plentiful, and I can only account for the
damage being amongst the nettles and similar weeds and not in other places
by the probability that owls (and kestrels) were unable to see the mice on account
of the dense covering of weeds. Now that the weeds are cut and the ground
1 A nurseryman giving evidence before the Vole Plague Committee, 1892, stated that he had experienced serious losses
on account of their ravages. Voles, he stated, would take the bark off young trees eight and ten inches up the stem.
2 F ield , September 26, 1903.