THE WATER-RAT OR WATER-VOLE. 329 



Should a flood now occur, the young are old 

 enough to contend with it, and unless it be one 

 of exceptional violence, the peril it presents is less 

 than that which exists from the murderous beasts 

 without. 



All these things the water-voles of to-day do 

 not, probably, reason out for themselves ; the know- 

 ledge of them has been inherited from countless 

 generations of forefathers who, atom by atom, 

 grain by grain, have profited by their experience, 

 and, acting accordingly, have handed their lessons 

 on to their children, thus establishing such life 

 habits and customs of the species that we have 

 to-day a water-vole that can hold its own. Many 

 have perished where the water-vole has survived, 

 and no doubt it was the same gift of profiting by 

 sad experience that, in the dim long ago, taught 

 this little creature that water was its friend, and 

 that at the water's edge it was better able to evade 

 its many foes than on dry land. 



To-day the water-vole is aquatic simply for pro- 

 tective purposes. Naturally it has acquired a taste 

 for many water-loving plants ; but the requirements 

 of its ordinary life, not taking into account its foes, 

 do not necessitate the close proximity of water. 

 It is capable of flourishing on dry land, as its foods 

 are not limited to the water's edge, and it affords 

 one of the few examples in wild life of a creature 

 that has chosen its habitat solely with a view to 

 holding out against its enemies. 



To this choice only does the water-vole owe its 

 survival. Slow -footed, short-sighted, an excep- 

 tionally slow breeder, prized as a food item by all 

 carnivorous birds and beasts, and withal sufficiently 

 large to provide a tempting meal, the water-vole 

 could not have lived on had it not sought the 



