562 THE WATER RAT, OR WATER VOLE. 
shift for themselves, an event which occurs in a wonderfully short time, they leave the 
maternal home, and dig separate burrows. 
The strangest part of the Hamster’s character is its dull, unreasoning ferocity, which 
is utterly incapable of comprehending danger, and causes the animal to attack any kind 
of opponent, whether animate or not. An irritated Hamster will fly upon a dog, a man, 
or a horse, without the least hesitation. If a cart were to crush it, it would try to bite 
the wheel ; if a stone were to roll over it, it would turn upon the lifeless stone ; threaten 
it with a stick, and it fastens upon the senseless weapon with malign fury ; and when 
opposed by a bar of iron nearly red hot, it has been known to grasp the burning metal in 
its teeth, and to retain its hold in spite of the pain which it must have suffered. This 
combative disposition leads it to fight desperately with its own species, caring nothing for 
sex or age; and it has actually happened that when a pair of these animals have been 
placed together in a cage, the male has been killed and partly eaten by his disconsolate 
widow. 
The food of this animal is chiefly vegetable, but is varied by animal diet, such as 
worms, insects, mice, small birds, lizards, frogs, and other such vermin. It is a nocturnal 
animal, and achieves its robberies under cover of the darkness of night. It can hardly be 
termed a true hibernating animal, as it is quite lively for a considerable portion of the 
winter, feeding on its ample stores for nearly two months, and becoming very fat by the 
combined influence of inactivity and good feeding. Through a portion of the winter it 
becomes torpid, but awakes early in the spring, ready to renew its depredations in the 
fields. During the spring and summer months its food consists chiefly of leaves and 
various herbage. 
WATER RAT, OR WATER VOLE.—<Arvicola amphibius. 
THERE are many animals which have been saddled with a bad reputation merely on 
account of an unfortunate resemblance to another animal of really evil character. 
Among these misused innocents the Warr VoLE is very conspicuous, as the poor 
creature has been commonly supposed to be guilty of various poaching exploits which 
were really achieved by the ordinary brown Rat. 
It is quite true that Rats are often seen on the river-banks in the act of eating 
captured fish, but these culprits ave only the brown Rats which have migrated from the 
farmyards for the summer months, and intend to return as soon as autumn sets.in, The 
food of the true Water Rat, or Water Vole, as it is more correctly named, is chietly of 
a vegetable nature, and consists almost entirely of various aquatic plants and roots. The 
common “ mare’s-tail,” or equisetum, is a favourite article of diet with the Water Vole, 
and I have often seen it feeding on the bark of the common rush. Many years ago 
