SMALL DEER OUR RODENTS 139 
also bites the cane-cutters, and when one of the latter 
has been bitten, ' Quashy ' does not play the banjo any 
more. 
*' Ye little vulgar mouse,' as old Topsel calls him,, 
may be dismissed with a few words. Though a very 
pretty creature, he is so mischievous inside a house in 
various ways, that in numbers mice become a perfect 
pest ; in fact, no mistress of a home will suffer the 
presence of a mouse in it if she can possibly help it. 
The gentlest beings I have ever known will act in a 
somewhat vicious manner towards rats and mice. 
And yet it is truly wonderful to what a point the 
education of a mouse has been carried. I have often 
wondered where mouse university is located. 
The water-vole, or, as it is more commonly but 
improperly called, the water-rat, is a happy, innocent 
creature, that has its habitat by the water-side, 
gaining its living thereby. I look on him at times as 
a miniature beaver ; whenever I have seen him his 
actions have been so very beaver-like. Many an 
hour have I watched him by the edges of various 
waters. Go where the angler will, he will see three 
different creatures at varying times, close to him 
throughout the day the water-vole, the moor-hen, 
and the kingfisher. The latter beautiful bird will 
even settle on one's rod now and again, and that is 
