WATER RAT. 83 



jestic a bird, that it would grace our fauna much.* I never was 

 informed before where wild-geese are known to breed.f 



You admit, I find, that I have proved your fen-salicaria to be 

 the lesser reed-sparrow of Ray : and I think you may be secure 

 that I am right ; for I took very particular pains to clear up that 

 matter, and had some fair specimens ; but, as they were not well 

 preserved, they are decayed already. You will, no doubt, insert 

 it in its proper place in your next edition. Your additional plates 

 will much improve your work. 



De Buffon, I know, has described the water shrew-mouse : but 

 still I am pleased to find you have discovered it in Lincolnshire, 

 for the reason I have given in the article of the white hare.J 



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 galJon of 

 potatoes regularly stowed, on which it was to have supported 

 itself for the winter. But the difficulty with me is how this 

 amphibius mus 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 



* This fine species, the European howler, or eagle-owl (otus-bubo Europeans), has been occa- 

 sionally met with in England, and once so far southward as in Sussex. Four specimens were 

 noticed not long ago on the northern coast of Ireland. ED. 



t Of three species of wild goose closely allied to the domestic breed, which regularly winter in 

 this country, two only, the fen-goose (anser palustru], and bean goose (A* segetum), are known to 

 breed within the four seas, the other (A. albifrous] retiring in summer to high latitudes. The fen- 

 goose used formerly to resort in considerable numbers for this purpose to the marshes of Lincoln- 

 shire, but of late years, owing to the gradual draining of their haunts, to increased population, 

 and the improved system of cultivation which now prevails, they have been completely driven 

 from the locality, though a few still continue through the year in the fenny districts of the north- 

 west of Scotland. This species is usually considered to be the parent stock of our domestic race. 

 Mr. Selby observes, " no disinclination to breed with each other is evinced between them, and the 

 offspring of wild and domesticated birds are as prolific as their mutual parents.'' This does not, 

 however, appear to have been written from direct personal observation, and there is much reason 

 to entertain a different opinion. Mr. Jenyns well remarks' that the circumstance of the domestic 

 goose being derived from the A-'paluslris is " highly improbable, from the well-known fact that 

 the common gander after attaining a certain age is invariably white." Montagu also observes 

 that " a specimen of the A. palustru, which was shot on the wing by a farmer in Wiltshire, and 

 kept alive many years, would never associate with the tame geese. In fact the origin of these last 

 is unknown." To this may be added that the fen-goose is never known to descend to the cal] of 

 the domestic bird, as is the case with the common wild duck, and with the Canada goose, as re- 

 marked by Wilson. The snow-goose (A- hyperboreus) of the last mentioned author seems allied 

 to it, though evidently distinct; this species becomes white, excepting the] quill feathers, when 

 three years old. ED. 



t The water-shrew (sorex fodiens) is far from being rare in many parts of the country ; 1 find 

 them plentiful enough in Surrey. There is also another British aquatic species, the oared-shrew 

 (.S. remifer}, easily known by the dark colour of its under parts, which in the others are pale or 

 whitish. Both species appear gray when under water, from being then every where thickly 

 studded with minute air bubbles. ED. 



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