Science Art: Water-voles, 1911.

Scientific illustration of water-voles, a British rodent like a river rat.
Scientific illustration of water-voles, a British rodent like a river rat.

This is a pair of water-voles looking ready for a Wind in the Willows-style adventure, only without any waistcoats or trousers. They’re featured in a chapter on “The Rabbit” in British Land Mammals and Their Habits, by Alexander Nicol Simpson, a guide to the cuter critters of the U.K. published in 1911, and preserved on the Internet Archive. (They’re really described in the following chapter, “British Gnawing Mammals (Continued)” which starts with a section on “Rats – Real and Unreal,” which is a pretty great way to divide the categories of rats.)