80 FAUNA OF SHROPSHIRE. 



to its burrow and retires into it until it thinks the 

 danger has passed. Although so timid, Water Voles 

 will allow an observer to watch them at very close 

 quarters, if he keeps quite still, and the writer has many 

 times kept watch to see what they ate, and found that in 

 every case the food was of a purely vegetable character 

 generally succulent stems or roots of water-plants, 

 such as flags, horse-tails, and pond-weed (Potamogeton). 

 It bites off portions of these and then, sitting on its 

 haunches and holding them between its fore-paws, 

 nibbles away a little bit at a time. The Water Vole is 

 an expert swimmer and diver. If it is travelling along 

 and thinks itself unnoticed, it swims on the surface and 

 uses only the hind-legs to propel itself, the fore-legs 

 being laid back close to the body it rarely dives except 

 when alarmed. Like the other Voles, the Water Vole 

 hibernates and lays up winter stores in its burrows. 

 Very rarely it is found at a distance from water, and it 

 has been known to live in a field, and store up potatoes, 

 &c., for winter use. Perhaps from the nature of its 

 food, the teeth are stained a yellowish-brown colour. 

 The fur is generally brown, but varies from quite a light 

 shade to dark brown. In Cambridgeshire and certain 

 other districts it is found almost black, and this variety 

 was at one time ranked as a separate species. The 

 Water Vole has not a great many natural enemies besides 

 the Weasel, but it seems that the Heron must be 

 reckoned as one, for, Mr. Henry Gray reports, that 

 not long ago, the decoy-man at Oakley Park, saw a 

 Heron catch one of them by pouncing on it and gripping 

 it firmly across the back. It then deliberately drowned 

 the Vole by holding it under water till it ceased struggling. 



