--- title: The real animals of the river bank: the water vole, the mole, the otter, the toad and the river birds — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The real animals of the river bank: the water vole, the mole, the otter, the toad and the river birds», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: «The Wind in the Willows» is about a Water Rat, a Mole, an Otter and --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / The real animals of the river bank: th… # The real animals of the river bank: the water vole, the mole, the otter, the toad and the river birds Lesson 403 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 18 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/0/) — «The Wind in the Willows» is about a Water Rat, a Mole, an Otter and a Toad who row boats, eat picnics and drive motor-cars. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/1/) — Under the jokes are real British animals, and Kenneth Grahame watched them closely on the River Thames. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/3/) — Today it is one of Britain's most endangered mammals. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/5/) — But real moles do not spring-clean with whitewash, real otters do not chase May-flies, and real toads walk slowly to their ponds instead of driving cars into them. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/6/) — So when you read, ask: which part is the real animal, and which part is the story? - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/7/) — The Rat in the book is a water vole: it has a round blunt nose, small ears almost hidden in its fur and a short furry tail, while a brown rat has a pointed nose, big ears and a long scaly tail. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/8/) — Water voles eat grasses, reeds and other waterside plants, not fish, and they dig burrows in the bank with some entrances under the water, so they can slip away with a «plop». - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/9/) — Water voles have vanished from most of the places in Britain where they once lived, mainly because American mink that escaped from fur farms hunt them in their burrows, and because river banks were cleared and walled. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/10/) — A European mole has velvety black fur that lies flat whichever way it is brushed, so it can move forwards or backwards in its tunnels without getting its fur rubbed the wrong way. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/11/) — Moles have tiny eyes that can tell light from dark but see very little; they find food by touch and smell with a pink, sensitive snout. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/13/) — Moles do not hibernate; they keep digging all winter, going deeper when the ground freezes, and they live alone except when they meet to breed in spring. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/14/) — An otter's home in the river bank is called a holt; otters mostly eat fish and eels, and also frogs and crayfish, and they mark their stretch of river with droppings called spraints. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/15/) — Otter cubs stay with their mother for about a year, and at first they are nervous of the water: the mother has to coax them in and teach them to swim and fish. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/16/) — Otters almost disappeared from England in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly because farm poisons got into the rivers and the fish; after those poisons were banned they came back, and they have been reported again in every county of England. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/17/) — Mayflies are eaten by trout and other fish that leap up at them, not by otters; an adult mayfly lives only a day or two and cannot even eat, after a year or more as a young nymph under the water. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/18/) — Ducks like mallards feed by tipping their heads under the water and their tails up to nibble plants on the bottom, which is the real «Up tails all!» of the Ducks' Ditty. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/19/) — A kingfisher dives from a branch to catch small fish and nests in a tunnel in the bank; a moorhen is a black water bird with a red beak; a dabchick is the little grebe, a small bird that dives for its food. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/403-the-real-animals-of-the-river-bank-water-vole-mole-otter-toad-and-the-river-birds/20/) — A real common toad walks rather than hops, eats slugs, beetles and worms, and spends the winter asleep under logs or in compost heaps before walking back to its pond in spring. - ← previous: [Wonderland's sea creatures and made-up ones: lobsters, whiting, turtles, the Mock Turtle, the Gryphon and the Caterpillar](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/402-wonderland-sea-creatures-and-made-up-ones-lobster-whiting-turtle-mock-turtle-gryphon/) - next →: [The real animals of the Just So Stories: the whale, camel, rhino, leopard, elephant, kangaroo, armadillo and crab](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/404-the-real-animals-of-the-just-so-stories-whale-camel-rhino-leopard-elephant-kangaroo-armadillo-crab/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)