CLASS MAMMALIA.
67
Fuller, in his Worthies (1662, p. 348), refers to a de-
vastation of some sixty or seventy years later, but which
had a like dire result. He says :
" I wish the sad casualties may never return which lately have
happened in this county: the one, 1581, in the Hundred of Dengy
(Stow Chron., Anno Citat.), the other 1648, in the Hundred of
Rochford and Isle of Foulness (rented in part by two of my credible
parishioners, who attested it, having paid dear for the truth thereof),
when an Army of Mice, nesting in Ant-hills, as Conies in Burroughs,
shaved off the grass at the bare roots, which, withering to dung, was
infectious to Cattle. The March following, numberless flocks of Owls
from all parts flew thither and destroyed them, which otherwise had
ruined the country if continuing another year."
William Lilly, the astrologer, in his almanac Merlinus
Anglicus Junior, alludes to another invasion at Southminster,
and says that at the same time in Norfolk, over as much as
an hundred acres together, one could hardly set down his foot
without treading on them.
Arvicola glareolus, Schreber. Red Field-Vole or
Bank Vole.
This Vole is by no means common in Essex, according to
my experience, although the first specimen recorded as
British was described by Yarrell from an Essex example
(cf. Proc. Zool. Soc, 1832, p. 109).
I have seen a specimen from West Bergholt and another
from Layer de la Haye. Probably more might be found if
observers were careful to examine all the Voles they met with.
There is a good description of this species by Mr
J. E. Harting (Zool., 1887, p. 365), who records captures
at West Bergholt and Layer de la Haye, both in Essex, and
gives particulars of its distribution in Great Britain.
Mr. Edward Rosling has recorded (Zool., 1885, p. 433)
the capture of an albino specimen near Chelmsford, in