Note on the Water Vole. 327 



Up to a very recent date, if not even yet, a good deal of 

 ignorance prevailed as to the habits of the Water Vole, but, 

 as corrective of this, we may hold the following points made 

 out: — 1. This animal is frequently found in localities at a 

 considerable distance from water. 2. Like the Mole, it bur- 

 rows and throws up heaps at short distances in its run. 3. 

 It does not eat worms, nor small fishes. 4. It is wholly a 

 vegetable feeder, and its food does not consist solely of suc- 

 culent water plants; on the contrary, it is known to eat 

 potatoes, beet, the leaves of clover, grass rootlets, the roots 

 and root tendrils of shrubs, and of apple, plane, and oak sap- 

 lings. 5. When it attacks the bark, it does so close to, 

 or just below, the surface of the soil. 



In my previous paper I referred to the black variety of 

 Water Vole {Arvicola ater, Macgil.) as at that time often 

 met with in Aberdeenshire ; and, on the authority of Mr 

 Gray, as at one time common in the neighbourhood of Dun- 

 bar. I now learn that in the former locality it is rare, while 

 in the latter, a keen observer, Mr Hardy, of the Berwickshire 

 Naturalists' Club, writes that he has long " had a sharp eye 

 for black varieties, but none have been apparent." In the 

 Club's " Proceedings," the occurrence of three specimens is 

 recorded, and in each instance it is said, "they were not so 

 large as the common Water Vole." The specimen of the 

 black variety on the table belonged to my predecessor in the 

 Natural Science Chair, New College, Professor John Fleming. 

 The label attached to it, "Arvicola aquatica, Aberdeen," is in 

 his own writing. Laying it alongside of the two specimens 

 of the common form, it is seen to be much larger than either. 

 It is more than an inch longer than the measurement given 

 by Bell of the common sort, and must have been in all 

 respects larger than those now on the table. 



