THE WATER VOLE 19 



is short when compared with that of the brown rat and mouse. 

 The ears are very short and rounded, the soles of the feet hairless, 

 and the head broad and blunt. Its colour is chestnut-brown, tinged 

 with grey above, and fading into grey on the under parts. It 

 breeds twice yearly, producing five or six young at a birth. 



FIG. 17. -THE WATER VOLE. 



The water vole damages embankments by tunnelling below 

 the level of the water, and often strays to places away from streams, 

 devastating potato and vegetable crops, and in woods injures young 

 trees by biting through roots up to 2 or even 3 in. in diameter 

 when forming its runs. It appears to have a partiality to poplar, 

 willow and apple trees. Otherwise it feeds on aquatic plants, its 

 food being almost, if not entirely, vegetable, the carnivorous pro- 

 pensities reported against it being very doubtful. A black variety 

 is common in some localities, particularly in the north of England 

 and north-east of Scotland. 



FIELD VOLE (Arvicola agrestis), Fig. 18. This small animal, 

 about 5 in. in length, is of a reddish-brown colour above and 

 grey below, and found in woodland glades, grassy plantations, 

 meadows (especially in hilly and moorland districts on "bog," 

 strong marshy land, either grazed or mown for hay), parks, mown 

 or un-grazed orchards, rough grassy parts of pleasure grounds, 

 always where there exists a considerable depth of " bottom grass " 

 or debris of gramineous vegetation. In this soft bottom the field 

 vole makes runs, never burrowing deeply, and cuts the grass between 

 the root and the blade, eating the tender white part just below 

 the ground, and in bad cases so complete is the under-cutting that 

 the whole surface is left with a coating of loose withered herbage 

 readily skimmed off as " hay." Indeed, it is the close, dense, and 

 often mossy bottoms of meadows and pastures, or other land with 



