THE VOLES— VOLES PROPER. 



345 



remarkably gentle and equable disposition. Old 

 specimens remain vicious and intractable and can 

 only be kept in boxes which are lined throughout 

 with some metal which can withstand their teeth. 

 They are pursued not so much on account of the 

 damage they cause as owing to the profit they 

 bring. Notwithstanding that some people dislike 



THE MUSKRAT. Among the Vole family of Rodents the most useful is the Muskrat, the American 



animal shown in the picture. The fur is very much sought after and is one of the warmest and softest. Muskrats 

 live in burrows near the water's edge for their food consists of aquatic plants. (Fiber libethicus.) 



the fur on account of the odor of musk which clings 

 to it for a long time, it is often used for trimming 

 clothing, or in the manufacture of collars and muffs, 

 especially in America and China. The best pelts 

 are deprived of the long outer fur, dyed a dark 

 brown color and used as a trimming which resembles 

 the true Sealskin. The 

 flesh is eaten only by In- 

 dians to whom the odor, 

 which pervades it to such 

 a degree as to render it 

 wholly unpalatable to Eu- 

 ropeans, does not seem to 

 be disagreeable. 



Methods of The Muskrat 



Trapping the is caught in 

 Muskrat. traps baited 

 with apples; steel traps are 

 put in front of the holes, or 

 they are sometimes killed 

 in their burrows. The In- 

 dians know exactly which 

 "lodges" are inhabited; 

 they noiselessly creep up 

 to those in which the ani- 

 mals remain and with all 

 their might drive a sharp 

 spear through the walls, 

 usually transfixing the in- 

 habitants. 



The Water Vole is from eight and one-naif to 

 nearly ten inches long, the tail measuring from two 

 and one-half to rather more than three inches. The 

 color of tHp fur may be said to be uniform ; for 

 the grayish brown or brownish black of the upper 

 surface gradually merges into the lighter whitish or 

 gray, black or brownish black hue of the under 



parts. The Water Vole 

 may be readily distin- 

 guished from the Domes- 

 tic or Black Rat by its 

 thick, round, short head, 

 with strikingly short ears 

 covered with fur and not 

 attaining a quarter of the 

 length of the head, and its 

 short tail. The color is 

 variable, three variations 

 of the typical form being 

 particularly distinguish- 

 able: the Water Rat or 

 Water Vole, the Italian 

 Water Rat and the Ger- 

 man Schermouse, the lat- 

 ter a variety often found 

 some distance from water. 

 The Water Vole is widely 

 distributed and is really no- 

 where absent within its 

 range, which extends from 

 the Atlantic Ocean to the 

 Sea of Okhotsk, from the White Sea to the Mediter- 

 ranean, and it frequents alike plains and mountain- 

 ous regions, occurring even in high mountains. 



Water Voles resemble Moles, Muskrats and other 

 aquatic Rodents, in many respects in their habits. 

 The burrows dug by the Vole near the water are al- 



THE VOLES 



After the Muskrats we may consider the Voles 

 Proper (Arvico/a) and their allies. 



Description of None of the species renders itself so 



the Water conspicuous and obnoxious as the 



Vole. Water Vole (Arvico/a amphibins), 



which is one of the most harmful of Rodents, well 



known to naturalists, among whom it has repeatedly 



been the object of dissension. 



SNOW MOUSE. Up in the mountains, feeding on the vegetation which grows so sparsely at such lofty 



elevations, live the animals which the picture appropriately shows seeking for herbs and grass on the snow-inan- 

 tled Alps. (Arvicola nivalis.) 



PROPER. 



ways simpler than those it excavates in dry gardens 

 and fields. In the former a sloping tunnel leads to 

 the chamber which is lined very warmly at times; 

 while the Schermice variety of the species construct 

 tunnels, which may be many hundred paces long, 

 throwing up hillocks after the fashion of Moles and 

 building the chamber in one of the larger hillocks. 

 The long tunnels usually run close to the surface of 

 the ground, sometimes being so nearly superficial 



