The Voles are of heavier build than the Rats, the head is shorter, thicker, and the muzzle rounded instead of being pointed; the limbs are shorter and the hairy tail is not much more than half the length of the head and body. The eyes are small and short-sighted, and the small round ears scarcely project from the surrounding fur, though when listening intently the Vole erects them and makes them more conspicuous. Linnæus, following Ray, described the Water Vole as having webbed feet, but this is incorrect, though the toes of the hinder foot are connected at their base. They are naked and pale pink beneath, with five rounded pads, but above are clothed in stiff hairs. The thick, long, glossy fur is of a warm reddish-brown above, sprinkled with grey, and on the under parts yellowish-grey. This applies chiefly to the male; the female is slightly smaller than her mate, is less bright and more greyish-brown in her coloration. The average length of head and body is seven and a half inches, and of the tapering, ringed tail about four and a half inches. It sometimes occurs with black fur, especially in East Anglia and Scotland; and these examples are usually reported as the Black Rat. Some modern authorities recognise it as a sub-species (_reta_). [Illustration: _Pl. 66._ _H 102._ *Water Voles fighting.* Arvicola amphibius.] [Illustration: _Pl. 67._ _H 103._ *Young Field Voles.* Average litter of five; eyes still closed.] Although it has not the webbed feet that Ray attributed to it, its swimming and diving powers are of a high order. Often in walking near a stream or pond, the loud sudden "plop" as it drops into the water is our first intimation that the Vole is near. We may occasionally track his course under water, but as a rule he at once disappears into his burrow in the bank, sometimes by an under water entrance, and may regain the bank by an upper exit. These burrows, in which the Vole spends most of the daytime, often occasion considerable damage, as to the dykes in the Fenland, and where ponds have been constructed by artificial banking. Otherwise, the Water Vole must be pronounced an entirely inoffensive rodent, in spite of the libels that accuse him of capturing waterfowl and fish for which he is unfitted. He has been seen grubbing among the mud at the bottom for caddisworms and other insects, freshwater snails and the like; otherwise his food appears to be restricted mainly to the stems of horsetails and the succulent grasses, flags, loosestrife, and sedges that grow along the banks. Mr. A. Patterson says that in East Anglia he eats dead fish and living swan-mussels--also crayfish; but prefers the stems of the succulent grasses that grow in shallow ditches. That he is not a strict vegetarian appears to be proved by the fact that he is sometimes captured in rat-traps that have been baited with meat. St. John says that in spring, before the grasses are much grown the