MURID.*. 



MITIUD.E. 



thumb being oooipicuoui beyond the akin ; binder feet with fire toe*, 

 not webbed, though connected to a short distance from the base; 

 tail more than half the 1-ngta of the body, covered with hairs, of 

 which those on the inferior surface are rather long, aud probably 

 as<iit the animal in swimming by forming a sort of rudder of the 

 tail. Fur thick and shining ; of a rich reddish-brown mixed with 

 gray abort, yellowish-gray beneath. Dimensions by Mr. Dell : 



Inehea. Lines. 



Length of the head and body . . . 8 4 



Length of the bead . . . . . 1 10 



Length of the earn 5 



Length of the tail 48 



This appears to be the Sorgo Morgange of the Italians; Wasser- 

 Mause-Rat of the Germans ; Water-Rot of the Dutch; Watn-Ualta 

 of the Swede* ; Vand-Kotte of the Danes ; Llygoden y Dwfr of the 

 Welsh ; and Water- Vole and Water-Rat of the English. 



Ray names it M<u major aqualicui, tea. Itattiu aquaticiu, and he, as 

 well as Linneus, states that the Water-Uat ia web-footed. This 

 puzzled White of Selborne, who, in one of his letters to Pennant, 

 write*, " Kay says, and Linnteus after him, that the water-rat in web- 

 footed behind. Now I have discovered a rat on the banks of our 

 little stream that is not web-footed, and yet is an excellent swimmer 

 and diver : it answers exactly to the Hut amjihtbitu of Linnaeus (see 

 ' Syst. Nat'), which, he says, ' natat in fossis et urinatur.' I should 

 bo glad to procure one ' plantis palmatis.' " This letter is dated 

 early in August, 1767, and Pennant in his ' Synopsis' (1771), says of 

 the Water-Rat that it " swims and dives admirably, though it ia not 

 web-footed, as Mr. Ray supposed, and Linnaous copied after him." 



The Water-Rat inhabits the banks of riven, streams, ponds, and 

 even ditches, in the banks of which it burrows and breeds. Its retreat 

 is however sometimes at a great distance from the water. White 

 (Selborne), says, " As a neighbour was lately plowing in a dry chalky 

 field, far removed from any water, he turned out a water-rat, that was 

 curiously laid up in an hybernaculum artificially formed of grass and 

 leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a gallon of potatoes 

 regularly stowed, on which it was to have supported itself for the 

 winter. But the difficulty with me is how thin amphibious Mta came 

 to fix its winter station at such a distance from the water. Was it 

 determined in its choice of that place by the mere accident of finding 

 the potatoes which were planted there 1 or is it the constant practice 

 of the aquatic rat to forsake the neighbourhood of the water in the 

 colder months ! " We suspect that the potatoes had their charms for 

 the store-keeper. The Water-Kat is indeed entirely, as we believe, a 

 vegetable feeder, roots and subaqueous planU being its staple. It has 

 been said to feed on worms, frogs, small fish, and the fry of fish 

 generally, among other animal food ; and has thence laboured under a 

 very bad character as the enemy of the fish-pond and the trout-stream. 

 The best writers are agreed that there is no foundation for this 

 charge, and there can be little doubt, as Mr. Bell observes, that it 

 has arisen from this phytiphagous animal being confounded by in- 

 accurate observers with the common Brown Rat (Mat decumauut) 

 which often haunts ditches and mill-tails, feeding freely on all sorts 

 of animal substances, and taking the water boldly. The last-named 

 rats have been seen towards nightfall crossing the canal in the Regent's 

 Park in order to forage in the gardens of the Zoological Society. 



The Water-Rat is a very cleanly animal, and generally has but one 

 brood, consisting of five or six : these are ordinarily born in May or 

 June, when the vegetation is well forward ; but the young are some- 

 times produced as early as April, in which latter cose there is a second 

 litter towards the end of summer or beginning of autumn. The flesh 

 is said to be eaten by the French peasants on maigre days. 

 This Rat is an inhabitant of most parts of Europe. 

 Hr. Bell, who gives a very good figure of the Common Water- Vole, 

 or Water- Rat, remarks that a black variety of this species has long been 

 known, and that it has been described by Pallas and other continental 

 zoologists. Mr. Bell n of opinion that this is probably identical with 

 the quadruped described by Mr. Macgillivray m the sixth volume of 

 the ' Transactions of the Wernerian Society of Edinburgh,' under the 

 name of Arricola atcr, as very common in the counties of Banff and 

 Aberdeen. The Water- Vole, it is'stated, does not occur where this 

 Arricola aler abounds. The habits of the latter agree with those of 

 the Water- Vole. Mr. Macgillivray however thinks that there are 

 sufficient difference* in the organisation and colour of these two ani- 

 mals to warrant specific distinction. Arvicola ater is stated to be deep 

 black above, and black with a tinge of gray beneath ; in size somewhat 

 smaller than the Common Water- Vole, but the difference of the pro- 

 portions is scarcely appreciable. Mr. Bell observes that this author 

 believes the number of caudal vertebra to be different ; and he adds 

 that, if tbii were constantly the case, it would go far to establish their 

 upecific distinction ; but an examination of a stuffed specimen belong- 

 ing to Mr. Yarrell, does not, on a comparison with several of the 

 common sort, appear to Mr. Bell to justify this supposition. " Mr. 

 Jeoyns," continues Mr. Bell, "states that the black variety is not 

 uncommon in the fens of Cambridgeshire, and differs in no respect 

 from the other but in colour ; a testimony which must weigh very 

 heavily against the opinion of its being specifically distinct, wbcn we 

 consider the great accuracy of that gentleman's observation*." 



Section II. Terrestrial Arvicoles. 



A. agrettit(Mut agrrttit brathyartu, Ray; M. agratit. Linn.; Jkf. 

 arralu, Pall., UmeL; Lcmrnut arralii, F. Cuv. ; A. rulgarit, Deun. ; 

 4. agrettit, Flem., Jenyns, Yarrell; A. arralu, Selys-Longchampi ; 

 Campagnol, Buff.) ; Short-Tailed Field-Mouse, Penn. ; Meadow-Mouse, 

 Shaw. 



The head is large ; muzzle very obtuse ; ears just appearing above 

 the fur ; body thick and full ; tail not more than one-third the length 

 of the body, sparingly covered with hair ; thumb of the fore feet 

 rudimentary, without a claw. Upper parts reddish-brown, mixed with 

 ;ray ; of the under parts ash-colour; feet and toil dusky. Dimensions 

 by Mr. Bell:- inches. Linos. 



Length of head and body . ... 4 1 



Length of head 12 



Length of tail 1 34 



This appears to be Le Petit Rat de Champs and Le Campagnol of 

 ;he French ; Campagnolo of the Italians ; Skier Muus of the Dane* ; 

 Llygoden Qwtta'r Maes of the Welsh ; Field-Vole, Short-Tailed rVM- 

 tlouse, and Meadow-House, of the English. 



Small and insignificant as the animal is in appearance, there is 

 scarcely a species among the Rodents more destructive to the fields, 

 gardens, and woods, which have been rendered fruitful by the indus- 

 trious hand of man, than the Short-Tailed Field-Mouse. In the corn- 

 field, in the rick-yard, in the granary, in the extensive plantation, its 

 depreciations are often severe, and sometimes overwhelming. The 

 following instance will show- what damage these mice are capable of 

 doing when they become multitudinous. Lord Gleubervie, in a letter to 

 Sir Joseph Banks, dated June 30th, 1814, observes that the whole both 

 of Dean Forest and New Forest appeared to be numerously stocked 

 with mice ; at least wherever the large furze-brakes iu the open parts 

 had been burnt their holes and runs covered the surface. Hay wood 

 Hill, a new plantation of about 500 acres in the forest of Dean, was 

 particularly infested. This inclosure, after being properly fenced, was 

 planted with acorns in 1810, and in the following spring about one- 

 third came up ; the rest of the seed having been probably destroyed 

 l>y mice principally. The young shoots of the natural hollies of the 

 tract, which had been cut down to favour the plantation, were not 

 attacked by the mice in the winter of 1811, though their runs were 

 numerous. In the autumn of 1812 a large quantity of five-year's-old 

 oaks and chestnuts, with ash, larch, and fir, were planted in the 

 iuclosure. In the winter the destruction began, and numbers of the 

 bollies, then two, three, or more feet high, were barked round from 

 the ground to four or five inches upwards, aud died. In the spring 

 of 1813 n number of the oaks and chestnuts were found dead, and 

 when they were pulled up it appeared that the roots had been gnawed 

 through two or three inches below the surface of the ground ; many 

 were also barked round and killed like the holly-shoots ; whilst others, 

 which had been begun upon, were sickly. The evil now extended to 

 the other inclosures ; and becoming very serious both in Dean Forest 

 and the New Forest, cats were turned out ; the bushes, fern, rough 

 gross, 4c., were cleared away to expose the mice to beasts and birds 

 of prey ; poisons in great variety were laid ; and seven or eight dif- 

 ferent sorts of traps were set for them, some of which made of tin 

 succeeded very well These were however superseded by the plan of 

 a professed rat-catcher, who, having been employed to catch the 

 had observed on going to work iu the morning that some of them 

 had fallen into wells or pits, accidentally formed, and could not get 

 out again, many of them dying from hunger or fatigue in endeavouring 

 to climb up the sides. Such pits were therefore, on his recommenda- 

 tion, immediately tried : they were at first made 3 feet deep, 3 feet 

 long, and 2 feet wide ; but these were found to be unnecessarily large, 

 and after various experiments it appeared that they answered best 

 when from 18 to 20 inches deep at the bottom, about 2 feet in length, 

 and one foot and a half in width, and at top only 18 inches long aud 

 9 inches wide, or indeed as small as the earth could be got out of a 

 hole of that depth ; for the wider they are below aud the narrower 

 above the better they answer their purpose. They were made about 20 

 yards asunder, or about 12 on an acre ; or, where the mice were less 

 numerous, 30 yards apart. Nearly 30,000 mice had been caught 

 principally by this lost method, in Dean Forest, up to the 22nd of 

 December ; and Mr. Davios (the deputy-surveyor) was convinced that 

 a far greater number had been taken out of the holes, either alive or 

 dead, by stoats, weasels, kites, owls, itc., and even by crows, magpies, 

 jays, Ac. 



The success of these holes in Dean Forest was so great, that the 

 use of a bait in them was soon discontinued ; but from an inaccu- 

 racy iu the digging of them, or some other cause, they were far 

 less efficacious in the New Forest, where the mice continued still, 

 though leas numerous, to infest the plantations. It was hoped that 

 the severe weather would have either totally destroyed or greatly 

 diminished the numbers of these animals, for they did not venture 

 out during the hard frosts. In a letter from Mr. Davies, dated the 

 8th of March, 1814, he gives only 1210 as the number taken from the 

 7th of January to the 6th of March ; and he says the whole of these 

 had been caught in a few days of open weather which intervened 

 about that time. The total number taken iu Dean Forest to the 8th 

 of March, 1814, did not much exceed 30,000 ; and iu the New Forest 



