The Girls Own Paper, Vol. VIII, No. 355, October 16, 1886 | Page 6

the owners,
and will in consequence do some damage to the crops.
Moreover, even putting their food aside, their habits often render them
obnoxious to civilised man. The mole, for example, useful as it really is
in a field, does very great harm in a garden or lawn, although it eats
none of the produce.
The water-vole, however, is doubly injurious when the field or garden
happens to be near the water-side. It is a mighty burrower, driving its
tunnels to great distances. Sometimes it manages to burrow into a
kitchen-garden, and feeds quite impartially on the different crops. It has
even been seen to venture to a considerable distance from water,
crossing a large field, making its way into a garden, and carrying off
several pods of the French bean.
In the winter time, when other food fails, the water-vole, like the hare

and rabbit, will eat turnips, mangold-wurzel, the bark of young trees,
and similar food. Its natural food, however, is to be found among the
various aquatic plants, as I have often seen, and the harm which it does
to the crops is so infinitesimally small when compared with the area of
cultivated ground, that it is not worthy of notice.
Still, although the harm which it does to civilised man in the aggregate
is but small, even its most friendly advocate cannot deny that there are
cases where it has been extremely troublesome to the individual
cultivator, especially if he be an amateur.
There are many hard men of business, who are obliged to spend the
greater part of the day in their London offices, and who find their best
relaxation in amateur gardening; those who grow vegetables, regarding
their peas, beans, potatoes, and celery with as much affection as is felt
by floriculturists for their roses or tulips.
Nothing is more annoying to such men than to find, when the toils of
business are over, and they have settled themselves comfortably into
their gardening suits, that some marauder has carried off the very
vegetables on which they had prided themselves.
The water-vole has been detected in the act of climbing up a ladder
which had been left standing against a plum tree, and attacking the fruit.
Bunches of grapes on outdoor vines are sometimes nipped off the
branches by the teeth of the water-vole, and the animal has been seen to
climb beans and peas, split the pods, and devour the contents.
Although not a hibernating animal, it lays up a store of food in the
autumn. Mr. Groom Napier has the following description of the
contents of a water-rat's storehouse:--
"Early in the spring of 1855, I dug out the burrow of a water-vole, and
was surprised to find at the further extremity a cavity of about a foot in
diameter, containing a quantity of fragments of carrots and potatoes,
sufficient to fill a peck measure. This was undoubtedly a part of its
winter store of provisions. This food had been gathered from a large
potato and carrot bed in the vicinity.

"On pointing out my discovery to the owner of the garden, he said that
his losses had been very serious that winter owing to the ravages of
these animals, and said that he had brought both dogs and cats down to
the stream to hunt for them; but they were too wary to be often caught."
I do not think that the owner of the garden knew very much about the
characters either of the cat or water-vole.
Every one who is practically acquainted with cats knows that it is next
to impossible to point out an object to a cat as we can to a dog. She
looks at your finger, but can never direct her gaze to the object at which
you are pointing. In fact, I believe that pussy's eyes are not made for
detecting objects at a distance.
If we throw a piece of biscuit to a dog, and he does not see where it has
fallen, we can direct him by means of voice and finger. But, if a piece
of meat should fall only a foot or two from a cat, all the pointing in the
world will not enable her to discover it, and it is necessary to pick her
up and put her nose close to the meat before she can find it.
So, even, if a water-vole should be seen by the master, the attention of
the cat could not be directed to it, her instinct teaching her to take prey
in quite a different manner.
The dogs, supposing that they happened to be of the right breed, would
have a better chance of securing the robber, providing that they
intercepted its retreat to the water. But if the water-vole should succeed
in gaining its