150 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



new and old world. It is common in England, 

 Wales, and Scotland, but is unknown is Ireland. 

 The black or melanotic variety prevails largely in 

 the fens of Cambridgeshire and in Scotland. 



The long', winding burrows of the water vole are 

 made in the banks of rivers, canals, and mill-dams, 

 where it will soQietimes do damage by undermining 

 the banks. 



It is not a newcomer as the black and brown 

 rats are, but is an old inhabitant, since its bones 

 are found fossil in the forest beds of Norfolk and 

 the brick earths of the Thames Valley. 



The food of the water vole consists mainly of 

 water plants, and though such a keen observer of 

 Nature as Mr. Harting maintains that he is a strict 

 vegetarian, other naturalists have accused him of 

 taking a certain amount of animal food in the shape 

 of fish, flesh, and molluscs. Isaak Walton calls the 

 " Craber ^' (water vole) a fish destroyer with whom 

 ^'^any honest man might make a just quarrel. ^^ 



The nest is made of grass, bitten up into small 

 pieces, and the young, which number from five to 

 eight, are usually seen about June. The mother 

 will often carry her young as a cat does her kittens, 

 and if swimming with them, will hold them high out 

 of the water, unlike the otter, who carries them 

 beiieath the surface. 



They appear to rest about mid-day, and come 



out in the morning and evening. Mr. Millais says, 



" They are wonderfully quiet and peaceable animals, 



and love to sit for hours lost in a ' brown ' study, ^' 



When feeding the water voles sit on their hind 



