04 RODENTIA 



WATER VOLE. 



ARVICOLA AMPHIBIUS (Z.). 



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, I 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 Konaldson'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 Eoyal Physical Society, p. 325. In a pre- 

 vious 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 I am not prepared to affirm that it never does ; 



