THE WATER RAT 



421 



cuts the length which suits him. Then 

 he swings round to face the stream and 

 you. He sits back on his haunclies 

 and holds his portion in his hands. He is 

 a noisy eater — so noisy that while he eats 

 he can hear httle but his own munching. 

 If he would listen, he must cease to eat. 

 Now and again he stops— once as a hay 



but it is quite certain that the outcry 

 which has occasionally been raiserl against 

 him as a destroyer of trout has no weight 

 of scientific evidence to support it. I 

 have known Water Rats to frequent a 

 trout-hatchery adjoining a river without 

 causing any appreciable damage, but 

 I have never known them to frequent the 



1 and 2. The right upper and lower molars of the Water Rat. Prismatic spaces in English reckoning, 

 5, 4, 4 ; 7, 5, 3 ; French reckoning, 5, 4, 5 ; 7, 5, 5. 



3. The musk gland of the Water Rat, the hair being parted to show it. 



4. Under surface of a Water Rat's hind foot, showing the five pads. 



5. Skull of the Water Rat. The large upper incisors are a rich orange colour, the lower dull yellow. 



cart lumbers on the bridge, once as a 

 swallow sweeps across his nose, once as 

 you sneeze. This last sound seems to 

 scare him. He drops his paws and stares 

 at you ; brushes his face and stares at 

 you ; sits back once more and stares at 

 you. The current steals his meal away, 

 but he soon gets a second one, which 

 means a second reed-stem felled. Two 

 more and he is satisfied. He creeps into 

 the tangle and you see him no more, but 

 you probably will if you visit the same 

 spot at the same time to-morrow. 



It is unlikely that a normal Water Rat 

 confines himself entirely to vegetable food. 



54 



shallow, swift - flowing, gra\-el - bottomed 

 tributaries which trout at large select for 

 spawning. 



Their natural habitat is the slow-running, 

 weed-encumbered, coarse-fish stream ; the 

 dyke ; the pond ; or the mill-head. Their 

 natural food consists of the water weeds, 

 reetls and grasses to be found in such 

 situations. Their structure precludes any 

 likelihood of their being able to pursue, 

 let alone catch, swimming fish. It has 

 been recorded (with evident intent to 

 secure a conviction) that the Water Rat 

 has been trapi^ed in a gin baitetl witli 

 meat, and that he has filched fish which 



