GNAWING ANIMALS liODENTl 



151 



legs and hold their food in their fore paws, after the 

 manner of squirrels. They are excellent swimmers 

 from an early age and will sometimes swim on the 

 surface, exposing the head and back, bat if alarmed 

 they will sink their bodies and keep the nose only 

 above water. Often, too, they may be seen, as Mr. 

 Trevor Battye has observed, swimming with their 

 hind feet only, like a beaver or a seal. 



Fig. 40. — The Water Vole (Microtus amphihius). (Photo, by 

 H. C. Wood, from a specimen in the British Museum of 

 Natural History.) 



Mr. Douglas English has kept water voles in cap- 

 tivity, and finds that a liberal supply of water, suffi- 

 cient for a plunge bath, is essential to their welfare, 

 otherwise the oily matter which is secreted round 

 their eyelids solidifies and they are practically blinded. 

 Mr. Douglas English kept his water voles in a gal- 

 vanised iron tank, " tilted so as to ensure six inches 

 in depth of water at one end and feriyi firma at the 

 other. ^' The same writer says they are the only 



