CHAPTER III 

 SOME MAMMALIAN NOTES 



WATER-VOLE AND CRAYFISH 



I HAVE before referred to the partiality exhibited by 

 the water-vole 1 (Microtus agrestis] to fresh-water fishes, 

 and also to the swan-mussel (Anadonta), and would not 

 again revert to the subject did I think it would lead to the 

 hurting of one solitary hair of the merry little fellow's back. I 

 like his company too well, for of all my eventide visitors 

 when sitting out the last hour of evening in the stern of the 

 Moorhen, when moored in some solitary corner in Broad- 

 land, none has gratified me more by queer antics and inno- 

 cent gambols. Wholly unaware of my presence, a pair of 

 voles have come out on the bank to court and play, varying 

 the fun of careless existence by daintily nibbling the coarse, 

 luscious grasses at the waterside ; now chasing each other, 

 now coyly making love, now sitting up as if half suspicious 

 of being overlooked by they know not what. Happy little 

 creatures ! However, they must eat ! And I have become 

 fully convinced that their diet is of an omnivorous kind. 

 When dealing with this subject in June, 1897, I received the 

 following letter : 



" AYLSHAM, June ith, 1897. 



" I take the liberty of asking your opinion on a matter of 

 natural history. I wish to ascertain with certainty, as I 

 know you are a careful observer on these points. 



" One day, the week before last, whilst fishing in the Bure, 

 between the junction of Scarrow Beck and Blickling Mill, I 

 found about twenty large crayfish, or rather their remains, in 

 little heaps by the edge of the river, the tail parts neatly 

 nibbled in a groove along the middle of the back to enable 

 the contents to be extracted. The big claws [were] eaten 

 through about half-way for the same purpose. 



1 Notes of an East Coast Naturalist, pp. 267-70. 

 335 



