138 THE WATER VOLE. 
commonly supposed to be guilty of various poaching exploits which were 
really achieved by the ordinary brown rat. 
It is quite true that rats are often seen on the river-banks in the act of 
eating captured fish, but these culprits are only the brown rats which have 
ng 
TA. Pg p= L—— 
LE LON re aL—LL———— 
HAMSTER. —(Cricétus frumentarius.) 
migrated from the farmyards’for the summer months, and intend to return 
as soon as autumn sets in. ‘ihe food of the true Water Rat, or Water Vole, 
as it is more correctly named, is chiefly of a vegetable nature, and consists 
almost entirely of various aquatic plants and roots. The common “ mare’s- 
WATER VOLE.—(Arvicola amphibius.) 
tail,” or Equisetum, is a favourite article of diet with the Water Vole, and I 
have often seen it feeding on the bark of the common rush. Many years 
ago J shot a Water Vole as it was sitting upon a water-lily leaf and engaged 
in eating the green seeds; and on noticing the kind of diet on which the 
