326 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



lets and fragments of clover leaves. The " runs " of the 

 Hope Terrace specimen were among plots of beetroot, to 

 which it had done much damage, and on which it had been 

 feeding. It was found that the viscera, and even the body 

 walls and parts of the under surface of the skin, were stained 

 by the bright red juice of the beet. After lying nearly six 

 years in methylated spirit, the dye continues still well 

 marked. The Bruntsfield Place specimen was an old male. 

 On examination, I found the stomach crowded wdth tiny, 

 thin shavings of almost dry w^ood, and the intestines filled 

 with a clear, lightish-brown watery fluid, containing granular 

 particles, which, under the microscope, were seen to be frag- 

 ments of wood fibre. The animal had been burrowing at 

 the roots of bushes and sapling apple trees, and had de- 

 stroyed several. 



The first specimen was sent to me in summer, the second 

 in autumn, and the third in spring. The following passage 

 from Gilbert White's " Selborne" may be quoted in this 

 connection: — "As a neighbour was lately ploughing in a 

 dry chalky field, far removed from any water, he turned out 

 a w^ater rat that was curiously laid up in a hybernaculum, 

 artificially formed of grass and leaves. At one end of the 

 burrow lay about a gallon of potatoes, regularly stored, on 

 which it was to have supported itself for the winter. But 

 the difficulty with me is how this Mus amphibius (the 

 Linnean designation of Arvicola amphibia) came to fix its 

 winter station at such a distance from the water. Was it 

 determined in its choice of the place by the mere accident 

 of finding the potatoes which were planted there ? or is it 

 the constant practice of the aquatic rat to forsake the neigh- 

 bourhood of the water in the colder months ? " Fleming 

 (Brit. An., p. 23) says he had twice witnessed this potato 

 storing, and he thinks it probable that the animal becomes 

 torpid in the cold months. But the facts now recorded show 

 that wandering from the water is not limited to the setting- 

 in of winter. And, as regards torpidity, were this the case, 

 we might have counted on the Bruntsfield Place specimen 

 being somewhat lean after its long sleep; but, instead of 

 this, it was plump and fat. 



