496 MURID^— ARVICOLA 



equal to that of the mole." Their food is stated to have been 

 chiefly the roots of grass and thistles, quantities of which were 

 found as if stored in the runs. Eventually the island was 

 flooded by order of the owners, the Humber conservators, but 

 probably the "plague'' would have disappeared in the usual 

 way. Judging from contemporary accounts it was three or 

 four years coming on. 



There is some disagreement as to whether the Water Rat 

 accumulates winter stores of provisions, this habit not having 

 been recently reported. The only positive evidence consists 

 of the statement^ by Gilbert White that a neighbour when 

 ploughing a dry chalky field, removed from any water, "turned 

 out a Water-rat, that was curiously laid up in an hyber- 

 naculum, artificially formed of grass and leaves. At one end 

 of the burrow lay about a gallon of potatoes, regularly stowed, 

 on which it was to have supported itself for the winter." The 

 occurrence puzzled White, and since there is no evidence that 

 he ever examined the rat himself, one is tempted to identify the 

 store with that of a Brown Rat and to mark the identification 

 as a mistake. Fleming, commenting on the above anecdote, 

 remarked that he had twice witnessed the same thing, but 

 since he seems to have believed that Water Rats hibernate in 

 winter, the addition of a store is easily imaginable. On the 

 other hand, since CoUett states that such stores of potatoes 

 and other food are usual in the Norwegian A. ierrestris, it is 

 probably right to regard the observations as correct descrip- 

 tions of a habit rarely developed in mild climates. 



The voice of the British Water Rat has not been described, 

 but M. Lataste mentions that his continental captives emitted 

 a small sharp cry and hissed. Adams caught one alive which 

 emitted "low whistling squeaks" while struggling to escape; 

 these sounds would have been inaudible at a distance of two 

 or three yards. 



The eyesight is probably poor, and M, Lataste suggests 

 that all "voles" suffer from myopia. He thus accounts for the 

 fact that a captive, finding itself accidentally on the balcony of 

 a room high above a street, deliberately precipitated itself into 

 space. M. Lataste suggests that it is a like bad eyesight that 



' Letter xxvi. to Thomas Pennant, 8th December 1769. 



