Who, except naturalists, had ever heard, before the meeting of
the British Association on Tuesday, that British estates are in great danger of suffering seriously in value from the agency of voles? One accomplished man in our hearing,—no doubt he was a Tory of the high episcopalian set,—seriously argued that the reading ought to be " votes," from which British estates were clearly in imminent danger. Votes, however, threaten land in general ; voles, as it seems, only trees ; for we are told that the plantations at Drumlanrig have been destroyed by a species of vole, and that a vole is a creature something like a mouse, "but more closely related to the beaver tribe." It appears that the true remedy for voles is weasels and birds of prey, which are destroyed recklessly by game preservers, in order to prevent their depre- dations on game. Dr. Grierson says " voles are naturally harm- less, unless allowed to grow to great numbers by the destruction of the natural police of the forest," viz., birds or other animals of
prey.
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