1 6 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



CHAPTER II. 



FURRED AND FEATHERED YOUNGSTERS. 



The water-rat, or, more properly speaking, the 

 water-vole, is at all times a very interesting little 

 creature. In the marshlands, where the banks that 

 are constructed for keeping the water back have to 

 be kept in good order, he and his are certainly most 

 unwelcome, as they undermine these, and cause 

 great loss to the grazier-farmers ; but that does 

 not concern us here. 



It is a very pretty sight to see a family of voles 

 come out of their burrows to feed. They have 

 holes above water and below it, — the one below 

 being used to enter the upper chamber, from which 

 they dive, if alarmed, from the bank they are feed- 

 ing on. The father of the family pokes his head 



