320 Wild Life in Wales 



with frogs, and there are other " pickings " on land, which 

 an Otter does not disdain to notice. 



There are one or two places, on the side of the lake, 

 where Otters frequently lie up, as evidenced by their foot- 

 prints on the snow ; and there they are beyond the reach of 

 hounds, for it would be impossible to hunt it without the 

 help of boats, and this is not attempted. Occasionally, also, 

 one makes its lair on the upper reaches of the Llafar, and 

 there, also, it escapes molestation. I was told of one, which 

 had been seen to land on the promontory at Llangowr, after 

 having been disturbed by hounds, at the mouth of the 

 Llafar, on the opposite side of the lake, about a mile away. 



By some of the inhabitants, Otters are accused of robbing 

 Water Hens' nests ; but this, I fancy, is much more likely 

 to be the work of the common brown Rat, not to be con- 

 founded with the Vole, which is so commonly called a 

 "Water Rat." Having found a Water Hen's nest, one 

 day, on the branch of a thorn, overhanging a pool, I took 

 a photograph, and went back a few days later, expecting 

 to find the bird sitting, and in the hope of obtaining a 

 view of her upon the nest. A Llygoden favor, or "big 

 mouse/' as Mus decumanus is called here, had forestalled me, 

 however. Before I reached the pool, the cries of an angry 

 and agitated Water Hen were heard, and, looking cautiously 

 over the bank, I was in time to see a Rat leaving the nest, 

 every egg in which it had broken and sucked. 



Although the Rat is not very numerous in this part of 

 the country, it certainly lacks none of the assurance for 

 which it is so notorious elsewhere. During the winter, they 

 actually ate a hole through the floor of a hutch in which 

 some half dozen Ferrets were kept, in order to steal the 

 Ferrets' food ; and the keeper told me that he had seen a Rat 

 looking out of the hole, while the rightful owners of the 

 hutch were busy at their bread and milk, evidently impatient 

 for an opportunity of stealing a share of the meal ! For a 

 long time the hole remained too small for a Ferret to pass it ; 

 but, by and by, as a result of the Ferrets scratching above, 

 and the Rats gnawing beneath, it became so enlarged that 

 two or three of the Ferrets managed to squeeze through it, 



