COMMON FIELD-VOLE. 
23 
exposed to the liquid element, appear to have much difficulty in making headway 
downwards, manifesting great uneasiness in their aquatic movements, and keeping 
their little Beaver-like heads bobbing up and down and athwart, exactly like 
drowning puppies.” 
I was witness to a curious trait in the character of this animal on 11th April, 
188d. "Walking in the meadows at Aylestone with my Bogs, I observed some Bat- 
catchers at work on an old hollow willow-tree, from whence they dislodged, with the 
help of their Ferrets and Bogs, several common Bats and three Water-Voles, two of 
which evaded them by swimming. The third one was, however, caged with three 
of the common Brown Bat. The latter appeared abjectly terrified at our approach, 
and at that of the Bogs, and huddled together with their heads tucked under their 
bodies. It was otherwise, however, with the Water-Vole, which, upon our 
approach, reared himself upon his haunches, bared his teeth and snapped them, 
squeaked, and shook his paws at us with the most threatening gestures, and would 
have flown at us outright, had it not been for the protection of the bars. His 
conduct reg?.rding the other Bats was fair in the extreme, for he bit them in the 
most severe and impartial manner whenever they approached his corner. Indeed, 
one Bat nearly “ left his tail behind him ” under the quick strokes of the plucky 
Water-Vole’s formidable incisors. 
Harley observed that it is “ liable to variety.” Begarding the last statement 
I was always of opinion that this species, with the exception of the black variety 
mentioned by Bell, was most constant in its coloration, having had the opportunity 
of examining some hundreds— from all parts of England — since bo}ffiood ; but the 
late 3Ir. B. Widdowson assured me that he could, any season, procure, near IMelton, 
a constant, light-red variety, and, in proof of his assertion, he sent me, in 1883, a 
mounted specimen which, though apparently sun-faded on the one side, appeared 
to be of a very light red, almost yellowish-rufous, on the other. Soon after his 
lamented death I was at Melton, when his widow shewed me a beautiful variety of 
a light, golden-yellow, caught or shot in the vicinity of IMelton on 5th March, 
1885. Mr. W. "Whitaker wrote me that, whilst fishing at Besford, in August, 1879, 
he saw “a light yellow Water-Vole ” ; and Mr. Thomas Aulay Macaulay, whilst 
fishing at Beaumanor on 3rd April, 1888, saw another, which came and sat within 
five yards of him, and which he describes as being of a pale-fawn or cinnamon 
colour. It would thus apj^>ear that we have in Leicestershire a constant, though 
rare, variety, probably peculiar to the district. 
COM]MOX FIELB-VOLE. Microtus agrestis (Linmeus). 
“ Short-tailed Field-Mouse.” 
Besident and common. — Mr. J. Whitaker, F.L.S., F.Z.S., of Mansfield, Xotts, 
informs me of a light buff or cream-coloured variety of this species, procured 
at Wistow Grange in 1884. 
