The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District. 129 
ARVICOLA AMPHIBIUS (J.). WATER VOLE. 
This well known and, for the most part, harmless creature, 
is abundant on the banks of all our streams, ditches, and 
ponds, where it may be constantly seen and its habits studied 
without difficulty. Any kind of country appears to suit it, 
so long as there is water at hand. It is equally at home, for 
instance, by the marshes on the coast, the ditches bordering 
the corn-fields, the ponds in the midst of plantations, or the 
burns meandering among the hills. It reaches a considerable 
elevation, for in May 1887 I saw a buzzard capture one on 
the hills above Loch Skene. When the bird had devoured 
it, 1 went to the spot and picked up the skin, which was so 
little damaged that it might very well have done for making 
into a stuffed specimen. 
Occasionally this animal takes up its abode in our gardens, 
where it makes “runs” and commits considerable damage, 
destroying even shrubs and young trees by gnawing their 
roots. Several instances of this have come to my own 
knowledge. In March 1887 I obtained an old male from 
Dr Ronaldson’s garden, Bruntsfield Place, Edinburgh, which 
had almost killed several bushes and young apple-trees 
by cutting off their roots. I handed the Vole and a speci- 
men of its work to Professor Duns, who recorded the facts 
in a note which was published in the ninth volume of the 
Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society, p. 325. Ina 
previous note bearing on the habits of this species (op. 
cit., vol. v., p. 352), Professor Duns recorded the capture 
of another in an Edinburgh garden, where it had been feeding 
on beetroot. 
The Water Vole is sometimes accused of killing young 
birds, and J am not prepared to affirm that it never does; 
but I believe such an occurrence must be very exceptional. 
On Luffness marshes, where the animal is very abundant, 
I have seen a young redshank lying half-eaten at the 
mouth of one of their burrows,—no proof, however, that the | 
Voles had killed it. My explanation is that, finding the 
bird dead, they were tempted to eat it, in the same way 
that Field Voles will devour a dead companion. 
VOL. XI. I 
