THE WATER RAT. 257 



scarce., which indeed can seldom be the case in the 

 places where it takes its residence, the Water 

 Rat has recourse to aquatic plants for subsist- 

 ence*. 



This animal is never found about houses or 

 barns; but it has sometimes been observed in 

 meadows and gardens., feeding on the roots of 

 herbs and shrubs. As a farmer of Selborne, in 

 Hampshire,, in the winter of 1769,, was ploughing 

 up a dry chalky field, far removed from any water, 

 he turned out of the earth a Water Rat, that was 

 curiously laid up in an liybernaculum, or winter's 

 nest, neatly and compactly formed of grass and 

 leaves. At one end of the burrow there was found 

 more than a gallon of potatoes, all regularly stored, 

 laid up, no doubt, for the support of the animal 

 till the returning spring. The Rev. Mr. White, 

 from whose writings this anecdote is taken, asks 

 these questions: How came thia^amphibious animal 

 to fix its winter station at such a distance from the 

 water? Was it determined, in its choice of the 

 place, by the accident of finding the potatoes 

 which were planted there? Or js it the constant 

 practice of the Water Rat to forsake the neighbour- 

 hood of water during the colder monthsf? 



*Two or three Water Rats that I have opened, had their stomach 

 entirely filled with a macerated vegetable substance. 



f White's W T orks in Natural History, ii. p. 129. 



T those 



