.mammals (about which the Oxford biologists are seeking information) reaches
me from Mount St. Eloi, a place some of us knew very well during the War. .". In this village in the north of France," writes W. C. H., " we have this year a plague of field-mice and voles, and as I have trapped over two hundred in my garden since October, this will give you some idea of the numbers. They have done a lot of damage in all the gardens, eating lettuce, spinach, beet, and parsley ; and the damage to the farmers is so great that they called a conference and decided to kill them with cyanide of potassium and other poison. The local people say it is some years since they had such a plague. . . . In this part of the country we are troubled with animals locally called Loir,' or door- mouse. As soon as the apples and pears are ripening they tackle them and have to be trapped. The animals jump from the tree just like a squirrel." No two animals are more often confused than the field vole and the long-tailed field- mouse, though the superior snubness of the vole at both extremities should be distinction enough. W.. BEACH Thames.
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