MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 269 



and brought them out upon the bank to break and 

 devour at their leisure. 



In the August of 1896 I was in my houseboat at 

 Kendal Dyke, in the Broad district. I had taken 

 some small fish, and afterwards threw them upon the 

 bank behind me. On the morning following my 

 piscatorial feat I was surprised to find my Roach 

 half eaten, the upper sides being devoured to the 

 backbone. There were unmistakable signs of some 

 rodent having been there. I pegged down some 

 more small Roach in the evening, and by keeping 

 a careful outlook discovered the depredators to be 

 none other than Water Voles ! In neither instance 

 the Vole has been proved to be guilty of any 

 serious misdemeanour; and I shall be sorry indeed 

 to know that my satisfactorily proving him to 

 be at least piscivorous in his tastes, does him the 

 slightest harm. He is a delightful, trim, un- 

 obtrusive little fellow, good company enough too, 

 when one is in the solitudes of "the silent high- 

 way." His merry gambols with his kind are 

 pleasing to watch, and the way he spends his idle 

 moments and his busy hours is most interesting to 

 observe. 



Albinos and varieties of this species are by no 



