Water Vole feeds largely upon toads, rejecting the feet which it bites off and leaves in little heaps. We have been assured by a Surrey woodlander of long experience and an intelligent observer, that he has known the Water Vole on several occasions to indulge in very young chickens; but he admits this is a very rare occurrence and that it scarcely detracts from the Water Vole's reputation as a vegetarian. On the flanks, about halfway between the shoulder and the tail, will be found a pair of wrinkled glands which secrete a greasy matter with a musky odour. These are present in both sexes. Though the odour probably protects the Water Vole from some animals that might otherwise prey upon it, it does not appear to be objectionable to the Heron, the Owl, or the Stoat. When, to escape from real or fancied danger on land it suddenly dives into the water, it is not always to safety, for pike, large trout, and eels have been observed to seize them. The Water Vole does not hibernate; but it has been said to lay up considerable stores for the inclement season when food will be scarce and difficult to find. These stores consist of nuts, beech-mast, acorns, and the creeping underground stems of the horsetails. During the milder nights that come in winter he issues from his chamber in the bank and feeds upon young willow shoots; and though mainly a nocturnal animal will often take advantage of the higher temperature at midday during the winter. It is often found in fields far away from any water. The female constructs a thick-walled globular nest of reeds and grasses in the chamber under the bank, or in a hollow willow or a bird's nest, and there brings forth her litter of about five (two to seven) naked and blind young. The process is repeated three or four times during the season. The Water Vole is generally distributed in Britain, but does not occur in Ireland, or the Scottish islands; nor is it known outside Britain. The surface of the molar teeth in all the Voles presents a pattern of alternating triangular prisms. In the Water Vole and the Field Vole these teeth are not rooted in the jaw; in the Bank Vole they are in the adult. In addition to the definitely black sub-species (_reta_) referred to above, the southern brown sub-species occasionally throws up black, pied, or albino variations. *Field Vole* (_Microtus agrestis_, Linn.).