We
sent for the thrashing machine a day or two later, and killed over
seventy, and many escaped. Every dead rat was plastered with mud
underneath, especially on their tails, and it was evident that they
had only just arrived when first seen, and had travelled some
distance, probably the evening before, along the clayey overhanging
bank of the brook.
We always had great numbers of water-rats about brook; they are no
relation of the land-rat, having blunter, noses, shorter tails, and
very soft fur. They have not the loathsome appearance of the land-rat,
and live, almost entirely, on water-weeds, rushes, and other vegetable
matter. It is pretty to see them swimming across a stream; they dive
when alarmed, and remain out of sight a long time; they never leave
the water or the bank, and are quite innocent of depredations on corn.
In some counties, but not so far as I am aware in Worcestershire, one
of the harmless snappers up of unconsidered trifles is the
truffle-hunter. At Alton, in Hampshire, one of these men appeared in
summer; he carried an implement like a short-handled thistle spud, but
with a much longer blade, similar to that of a small spade but
narrower; he was accompanied by a frisky little Frenchified dog,
unlike any dog one commonly sees, and very alert. The hunting ground
was beneath the overhanging branches of beech-trees, growing on a
chalky soil; the man encouraged the dog by voice to hunt the surface
of the land regularly over; when the dog scented the truffles
underneath, he began to scratch, whereupon the implement came into
use, and they were soon secured.
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