WATER VOLE. 319 



subterranean caverns. It dives and swims with great 

 facility, instantly seeking the water upon every alarm, 

 and plunging at once to the bottom ; from whence, how- 

 ever, it is obliged to return to the surface for respiration 

 about every minute. It has often been asserted that the 

 Water Vole lives upon small fish, earthworms, and insects, 

 and it has even been accused of destroying young ducks. 

 There is not, however, the slightest foundation for this 

 opinion ; and there can be no doubt that the belief of its 

 carnivorous habits has arisen from its being confounded 

 with the common Brown Rat, Mm decumanus, which is 

 well known to frequent the banks of ditches, and to feed 

 readily on almost all animal substances, attacking even 

 the smaller animals alive, when driven by hunger : and it 

 is, in fact, in the organization essentially connected with 

 these different habits and propensities, that the characters 

 of the two families principally consist. 



We have often watched with great interest the move- 

 ments of the Water Vole when in search of food, which, 

 we have every reason to believe, consists exclusively of 

 vegetable substances. A decided preference is shewn 

 during the summer months for the inner or concealed 

 parts of some species of sword-flags, which is very succu- 

 lent and sweet-tasted. As this portion is usually below 

 water, the animal gnaws the plant in two near its root, 

 when it rises to the surface, and being conveyed to some 

 sound footing, is consumed at leisure. In default of its 

 more favourite food, it will make a satisfactory meal on 

 the common duckweed, the verdant summer mantle of 

 our stagnant ponds and moats. Only the green and 

 fleshy leaf is eaten, the roots and other fibrous parts 

 being rejected. While feeding on this plant, the creature 

 sits, like a squirrel, on its haunches, near the water's 

 edge, and taking up a lump of the soft and slimy-looking 



