THE WATER RAT 489 
eyes had opened and soon began to show discontentment by 
its cries and restlessness. The moment it was given access 
to water it became happy, but on the first day restricted 
its natatory excursions to traversing the vessel in a straight 
line, keeping its head always dry. The next day it crossed, 
still in a straight line, but below the surface. The third day it 
dived again, circling many times before emerging, and from 
that time it continued to perfect its aquatic education. 
The Water Rat has a second quite distinct tendency not 
usually recognised by those who regard it as an almost entirely 
aquatic animal, namely, a mole-like power of digging. It may 
thus be caught in regular mole-runs,’ or may even excavate its 
own tunnels, throwing up “hills” at intervals in their construc- 
tion. This is a procedure which it sometimes adopts when raid- 
ing gardens or grass-plots,” to reach which it sometimes travels 
long distances from water, one having been taken, for instance, 
in the stables of Hopton Rectory, at a distance of about a 
mile from the Little Ouse,’ and another in a kitchen garden ina 
small town.* One identified by J. H. Gurney® was killed on 
the lighthouse-cliffs of dry sand at Cromer, Norfolk, some 
miles from any running stream. 
Like the Water Shrew amongst British insectivores, the 
picturesque surroundings of its most favoured haunts, its 
diurnal habits and non-sensitiveness to observation, perhaps 
owing to its poor sight, have combined to render it an attractive 
animal to lovers of nature; its size renders it easy to observe, 
so that its method of eating, swimming, and transportation of 
its young have often been described*; all are, however, quite 
1 William Thompson, E. W. H. Blagg, Zoologist, 1894, 223; Field, 27th 
February 1909, 377; H. Laver, Journ. cit, 6th March 1909, 419. This pro- 
pensity appears at its height in the continental A. scherman, some races of which are 
entirely terrestrial and mole-like in their habits (D. Pierrat, Heuzlle des Jeunes Nat., 
tst March 1882, 62). 
* J. Duns, Proc. R. Phys. Soc. (Edinburgh), session cix., 1879-80, 352-55, 1880; and 
session 1886-87, 325, 1887; Fleming (clover). H. Daniells, Zoologist, 1847, 1768 
(grass); S. Gurney, Journ. cit., 1851, 3265 ; Adams, 47.S.; Charles Stewart, Azs¢. 
Berwick Nat. Club., xiv., 171; Millais. 
3 J. G. Tuck, Zoologist, 1898, 122. 4 E. B. Durham, /%e/d, 27th June 1891, 980. 
5 Field, 21st April 1894, 550. 
® One can “enjoy his society with greater intimacy than any other British 
mammal ”—Millais, ii., 291 ; note also Calverley’s poem on The Water Rat. It is 
often true that small mammals are more easily observed than large ones. W, P. 
VOL. II. 21 
