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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #55097 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55097)
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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Book of Nimble Beasts, by Douglas English,
-Illustrated by Douglas English
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-
-Title: A Book of Nimble Beasts
-       Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and "Those Sort of People"
-
-
-Author: Douglas English
-
-
-
-Release Date: July 13, 2017  [eBook #55097]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS***
-
-
-E-text prepared by MFR, Chris Pinfield, and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
-available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
-
-
-
-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file
-      which includes the more than 200 original illustrations.
-      See 55097-h.htm or 55097-h.zip:
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55097/55097-h/55097-h.htm)
-      or
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55097/55097-h.zip)
-
-
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive. See
-      https://archive.org/details/bookofnimblebeas00engliala
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-
-      Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals.
-
-      Text in bold face is not designated as such.
-
-
-
-
-
-A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS
-
-
- [Illustration: He held himself with an air, his body
- arched, one broad white pad uplifted, his tail curved
- decorously.--IN WEASEL WOOD.]
-
-
-A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS
-
-Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and "Those Sort of People"
-
-by
-
-DOUGLAS ENGLISH
-
-Fellow and Medalist of the Royal Photographic Society
-
-With Over 200 Illustrations
-from Photographs of Living
-Animals Taken by the Author
-
-
-
-
-
-
-London
-Eveleigh Nash & Grayson Ltd.
-148 Strand
-1922
-
-Printed by
-Woods & Sons, Ltd.,
-338-340, Upper Street,
-London, N. 1.
-
-
-
-
- IN MEMORY
- C. J. E.
-
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-                                                                  PAGE
- _JANUARY_
- SOMETHING ABOUT BATS                                               17
-
- _FEBRUARY_
- SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES                                           29
-
- _VALENTINE'S DAY_
- A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO                                        41
-
- _MARCH_
- ANIMALS' NESTS                                                     75
-
- _APRIL_
- SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES                                            89
-
- _LADY DAY_
- BUNNY RABBIT                                                      101
-
- _MAY_
- A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX                                             117
-
- _JUNE_
- TWO WONDERFUL WASPS                                               127
-
- _MIDSUMMER DAY_
- SPINIPES THE SAND-WASP                                            143
-
- _JULY_
- PICTURES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS                                    171
-
- _AUGUST_
- A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE                             179
-
- _LAMMAS DAY_
- IN WEASEL WOOD                                                    187
-
- _SEPTEMBER_
- SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING AND WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING          213
-
- _OCTOBER_
- THE BEASTIES' BED-TIME                                            227
-
- _MICHAELMAS DAY_
- THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS                                         237
-
- _NOVEMBER_
- SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON                                       261
-
- _DECEMBER_
- THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS                                        269
-
- _CHRISTMAS DAY_
- THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND                                279
-
- _BOXING-DAY_
- THE PYGMY SHREW                                                   301
-
-
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
- ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR                                          PAGE
-
- IN WEASEL WOOD
-
-   HE HELD HIMSELF WITH AN AIR, HIS BODY ARCHED, ONE BROAD
-   WHITE PAD UPLIFTED, HIS TAIL CURVED DECOROUSLY        _Frontispiece_
-
- A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO
-
-   THE GREEN TOAD SLOWLY STRETCHED HIMSELF.
-   "THAT?" SAID HE, "THAT'S NOT FRENCH"                             60
-
-   AT THE FIFTH STONE--A BULKY SLANTING ONE--
-   HE SIGHTED THE FRENCH FROG                                       60
-
- SPINIPES, THE SAND WASP
-
-   AN INSTANT'S PAUSE TO SHIFT HER GRIP, AND SHE HAD
-   PUSHED THE GRUB WITHIN THE ENTRANCE                             162
-
-   "TAKE THAT--AND THAT--AND THAT," SAID SPINIPES,
-   AND DROVE HER SHARP STING HOME                                  162
-
- THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND
-
-  AND THE LAST THING WINNIE REMEMBERS WAS THE GREAT
-  GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S WIFE HURRYING THE LITTLE
-  SKIPJACKS OFF TO BED                                             279
-
-
- ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT                                            PAGE
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT BATS
- Natterer's Bat                                                     17
- Lesser Horseshoe Bat                                               19
- The Noctule                                                        20
- The Noctule                                                        21
- Lesser Horseshoe Bat going to sleep                                22
- The Greater Horseshoe                                              23
- The Greater Horseshoe Bat hanging head downwards                   24
- Long-eared Bat                                                     25
- The Pipistrelle                                                    27
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES
- Toad's Spawn                                                       29
- Frog's Spawn floating on the water                                 31
- Frog's Spawn Quite Fresh                                           33
- Frog's Spawn showing Young Tadpoles, &c.                           34
- Frog's Spawn beginning to Grow                                     35
- Tadpoles getting like Frogs                                        36
- Tadpoles full grown                                                39
-
- A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO
- Passable                                                           43
- His Little Eyes were Starting from their Sockets                   47
- The Water Rat                                                      48
- The Salamander                                                     51
- The Natterjack                                                     52
- Have you Seen this Trick before                                    53
- The French Frog                                                    57
- "I see a Natterjack"                                               58
- "Fetch him," thundered the King Toad                               59
- Five Times He Tried                                                65
- The Shrew Mouse                                                    66
- He Bristled with Apologies                                         67
- The Green Toad                                                     69
- His Inside was Red Hot                                             70
- He Lay as He had Fallen                                            71
- "Ducks," whispered Bombinatrix                                     73
-
- ANIMALS' NESTS
- Four Moles' Nests Together                                         77
- The Squirrel                                                       79
- The Harvest Mouse Nest                                             81
- The Dormouse                                                       83
- A Dormouse's Nursery Nest                                          85
- The Harvest Mouse                                                  86
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES
- The Stag-Beetle                                                    91
- The Stag-Beetle that I ran over                                    93
- The Female Stag-Beetle                                             95
- The Great Water Beetle                                             96
- The Musk Beetle                                                    97
- The Cockchafer                                                     98
- The Churchyard Beetle                                              99
-
- BUNNY RABBIT
- Landed on his Back six feet below                                 103
- It wasn't Mother after all                                        105
- He Combed his Ears Out                                            106
- He Watched and Heard the Awakening of the Wood                    108
- Berus the Adder                                                   110
- Lay full length, eyes closed                                      113
- Bunny Rabbit Watched him out of Sight                             116
-
- A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX
- The Brimstone Butterfly                                           118
- The Red Admiral                                                   119
- The Purple Emperor                                                120
- The Clifden Blue                                                  121
- The Swallow Tail Butterfly                                        122
- The Black Pepper Moth                                             123
- The Silver-washed Fritillary                                      124
-
- TWO WONDERFUL WASPS
- Spinipes' burrow opened up                                        128
- Spinipes Bringing up a Grub                                       129
- Spinipes Grub Feeding                                             131
- Cocoon which Spinipes' Grubs make                                 132
- The Little Beetle that Caterpillars turn into                     133
- Before and After the Thunderstorm                                 135
- Crabro                                                            136
- Crabro Looking out of her hole                                    137
- How the Cocoons Looked                                            138
- One of the Crabro's Stores of Blue-Bottles                        139
- What the piece of Elm-bough looked like                           140
- One of the Cocoons of Crabro in Elm-bough                         141
-
- SPINIPES, THE SAND-WASP
- The Sand Cliff splits the Old Gravel-Pit in two                   144
- First the Wild Bees, Red King, Black Queen                        146
- Down Dropped a Red King                                           147
- "In Sand, Ma'am, in Sand"                                         148
- "Well, call me when it comes"                                     149
- Spinipes commenced to Dig in Earnest                              151
- "Good Hunting, Sister!" said the Ophion Fly                       153
- The Rose Chafer                                                   155
- Out flew the Bees                                                 157
- Hour after Hour she Toiled                                        158
- The Lowest Chamber of the Shaft now held a precious thing         159
- A Flabby, Green, Blackheaded Grub                                 160
- Twelve Grubs in all she brought                                   163
- She Sank five other Curving Shafts                                167
-
- PICTURES ON BUTTER-FLIES' WINGS
- The Magpie Moth                                                   171
- The Emperor Moth                                                  173
- The Elephant Hawk Moth's Caterpillar                              174
- The Elephant Hawk Moth showing his Trunk                          175
- The Peacock Butterfly                                             176
- The Mother Shipton Moth                                           177
-
- A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE
- The Common Shrewmouse                                             181
- The Water Shrewmouse                                              183
- The Pygmy Shrewmouse                                              184
- How the Pygmy Coils Himself Up to Sleep                           185
-
- IN WEASEL WOOD
- Again the Fox Cub was Puzzled                                     188
- He Sank from his Hindquarters forward                             191
- The Stoat Tiptoed Towards Him                                     193
- "My Plumed Tail! you wait till Squirrel grows"                    195
- Marten has seen you                                               197
- "Perhaps you will be good enough to get higher up the tree"       201
- It was another Badger                                             207
- She came out full charge                                          209
- And in due course of time, his wife                               210
-
- SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING
- The Lobster Moth Caterpillar                                      213
- The Spider on the Bramble Blossom                                 217
- The Dragon in the Water-weed                                      219
- The Lobster Moth Caterpillar, Angry                               220
- The Ichneumon Fly                                                 221
- The Puss Moth Caterpillar                                         223
- The Giant Wood Wasp                                               225
-
- THE BEASTIES' BEDTIME
- The Queen Wasp in her Winter Sleep                                227
- Bill the Lizard                                                   228
- Toadums                                                           229
- Round Eye the Dormouse                                            230
- Dormouse in his Winter Sleep                                      231
- Prickles the Hedge Pig                                            233
- The Hedge Pig in his Winter Sleep                                 234
- Lesser Horseshoe Bat Asleep                                       235
-
- THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS
- Bartimæus                                                         237
- He Headed Straight for the Water                                  239
- The Bank Rose Steeply Over Him                                    241
- Only one grass-blade stirred, but Tatters saw it                  246
- The Harvest Mouse stood up full length                            251
- The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant                       253
- "Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse                                  254
- "Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind                           257
- His fortress, his own fortress had been breached                  258
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON
- You can see his eye looking back over his shoulder                263
- You can see his hands and feet                                    264
- The Chamæleon                                                     267
-
- THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS
- Nuts Gnawed by Mice                                               269
- The Weasel's Trail                                                271
- Where the Weasel met the Mice                                     272
- Where the Weasel met the Rook                                     274
- Two Mouse Trails                                                  275
- The Fox's Footprints                                              276
-
- THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND
- She Never went to Sleep at all                                    281
- The Cricket was Sitting on the Hearthstone                        283
- The pair of them dropped                                          284
- "I beg your pardon," said the Grasshopper's Wife                  288
- The Mole Cricket                                                  291
- The Field Cricket                                                 292
- The Wood Cricket                                                  293
- The First Note sent the Grasshopper's Wife's hind legs
-   straight up                                                     295
- He had backed out of his hole                                     296
- The Grasshopper's Wife reared herself up                          297
-
- THE PYGMY SHREW
- The Woodmouse First                                               303
- He took the Right-hand Surface run                                305
- He could now see and hear as well                                 306
- His rival feinting, flicked his tail                              308
- The Grey Shrew Leant against the Trunk                            309
- With Tangled Tails and Rounded Straining Bodies                   310
- There they lay head to tail                                       311
- The Field Voles                                                   312
- The Bat came to a halt and stared                                 313
- The Pygmy climbed two inches up                                   314
- Now one was on his back, now the other                            315
- The Mole plunged into the air                                     317
-
-
-
-
-PUBLISHER'S NOTE
-
-
-The publisher may, perhaps, be allowed to call the reader's attention to
-the illustrations--particularly to the two of the Sand-Wasps, reproduced
-in colour. The difficulties of photographing from wild life active
-creatures of such small dimensions as hymenopterous insects are very
-great from an optical standpoint. The picture of Spinipes bringing the
-beetle grub to her tube took several years to accomplish successfully,
-and the strain involved by the conditions, a blazing June sun on the
-operator's back, an uncertain foothold, and the necessity of keeping the
-attention riveted for hours on one particular patch of sunlit sand, was
-exceptional. It is of course possible, probable even, that with the
-introduction of an improved lens system, which will enable fast
-exposures to be made at very short range on minute moving objects, this
-particular picture may be repeated and improved upon. But the odds
-against the second picture on the same page, that of Spinipes stinging
-the jewel-fly, _ever_ being repeated, are enormous. It will be necessary
-in order to secure the repetition of such a picture, first, that the
-camera shall be focussed on one out of a score of tubes; second, that
-the parasitic jewel-fly shall enter that particular tube; third, that
-the Owner Wasp shall return while the jewel-fly is below; fourth, that
-the Owner Wasp shall pull the jewel-fly to the surface; fifth, that the
-jewel-fly shall cling to the rim of the tube; sixth, that the Wasp shall
-sting it in this position--it will be noticed that the sting is directed
-at the junction of the thorax and abdomen; seventh, that the observer
-shall be ready to expose his plate at the exact psychological moment;
-and eighth, that he shall succeed in doing so. The first six conditions
-were, in Mr. English's case, fulfilled by chance. As regards the seventh
-he was unready. He was, in fact, some feet below his camera. But chance
-befriended him still further.
-
-He caught the jewel-fly's glint, and caught the shadow of the returning
-Wasp. He flung his arm up, grabbed the dangling bulb, and pressed at
-random. This action dragged the camera from its moorings--to fix a
-camera on a Sand Cliff's side is no slight task--and it fell twelve feet
-down. Yet it had done its work and made the picture.
-
-There are a score of pictures in this book, which are believed to be
-unique, not only by reason of the rarity of their subjects, but also by
-reason of the fact that they are the _only_ pictures of such subjects,
-good or bad, in existence. The most remarkable among them is the picture
-of Spinipes stinging the jewel-fly.
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTION
-
-
-I know a Boy Scout who has never seen a weasel. Many weasels, I fancy,
-must have seen that Boy Scout.
-
-And I know a Girl who has never seen a Harvest Mouse, but who might
-have, often.
-
-There may be other boys and girls like these. There may be grown-ups
-also.
-
-It is for them that I have written this book. It is to them that I offer
-its pictures.
-
-I would lead them (with hushed voices and quiet feet) into God's
-Under-World; a World of queer small happenings; of sparkling eyes and
-vanishing tails; a whispering, rustling World.
-
-I would have them, whatever their age be, approach this World as
-children. For children's eyes are closest to the ground.
-
- DOUGLAS ENGLISH
- HAWLEY, DARTFORD, 1910
-
-
-
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT BATS
- (JANUARY)
-
-
- [Illustration: NATTERER'S BAT
- The best-looking Bat in Britain]
-
-You must all, I think, have seen Bats flying, or, at any rate, pictures
-of Bats flying, and you must all know that they are night, or twilight,
-beasties, though some of our English kinds fly about in broad daylight
-more often than most people think. But do you all know that they are the
-only four-footed creatures that _really_ fly--for they are four-footed
-though they don't look it; and do you all know that there are, probably,
-more different kinds of Bats in England than there are different kinds
-of any other beastie; and that they are the very ugliest of British
-Beasties, taking them altogether; and that they all have very small
-eyes--which is a queer thing for twilight beasties to have; owls, of
-course, and dormice have very big eyes--and that they have either very
-wonderful ears, or very wonderful noses, but not both together? If you
-don't know all this, perhaps you would like to hear more.
-
- [Illustration: THE LESSER HORSESHOE BAT
- You can see his nose-leaf, shaped like a horseshoe, very
- well in this picture. Both the Greater and Lesser Horseshoe
- Bats are wonderfully neat fliers]
-
-We had better, I think, begin with a Bat's wings, for, when we have
-learnt something about these, we may perhaps get some notion as to why a
-Bat is more clever in the air than a bird, and far, far more clever than
-a flying machine, worked by a human brain, is at present. The reason why
-a Bat is a cleverer, I don't mean a stronger, flier than a bird, is a
-reason which you young people will find to be a very common one, if ever
-you try your hand at guessing Mother Nature's riddles. It is simply
-this--that _he has to be_. A Bat has to catch his food, tiny food
-mostly, in the air, and he has to catch it in a bad light, and, as far
-as we can tell, though we cannot be sure of this, his eyesight is not as
-good as, say, a swallow's eyesight. This means that he has had to pick
-up a wonderful quickness in checking his own flight, and in turning
-sharp in the air, almost head over heels sometimes, and in diving, and
-in soaring up again. To do all these things well he has had to be built
-in a very special way, and I will try to explain to you how he has been
-built by comparing a Bat with one of ourselves, for you must remember
-that a Bat belongs to the same great order of living creatures as we do,
-and that a Bat is much more like a human being than a bird is.
-
- [Illustration: THE NOCTULE
- You can see one earlet quite plainly, and his eye "starting
- out of his head"]
-
-Let us fancy, then, a small boy being turned into a Bat. The first thing
-that would have to happen would be that his legs would have to be bent
-at the knees, and shrunk until they were as thin as sticks. Then they
-would have to be twisted right and left until the knee-caps faced the
-wrong way about. His arms would have to be shrunk too, and his fore-arms
-would have to be stretched until they were twice their natural length,
-and his middle-fingers would have to be about a yard long, and his other
-fingers nearly a yard long also. His thumb might be left as it was, but
-it would have to have a strong claw at the end of it. In between his
-fingers, and joining his arms to his body, and stretching down to his
-legs, and joining his legs together, there would have to be a web of
-skin, and then, perhaps, if his chest was brought well forward like a
-pigeon's, and his head pressed well back until it stopped between his
-shoulders, he might, if his muscles were strong enough, and the whole of
-him was light enough, be able to fly.
-
- [Illustration: THE NOCTULE
- One of our largest Bats. He is sometimes more than a foot
- across the wings, and his brown fur is as velvety as a
- Mole's--when he feels quite well]
-
- [Illustration: LESSER HORSESHOE BAT
- He is hanging head downwards, and beginning to wrap himself
- up in his wings before going to sleep]
-
-Now about a Bat's eyes. I have already told you that these are very
-small--at least they look very small in our English Bats--and that it
-does not seem likely that Bats possess the wonderful eyesight, which one
-would expect them to have. In some cases the eyes are so curiously
-placed in the head that the Bat can hardly be able to see straight in
-front of him at all. In the Leaf-nosed Bats, for instance, you can only
-just see the Bat's eyes when you look at him full face, because his
-leaf-nose all but hides them--you can see what I mean from the
-pictures--and in the case of one rare little bat, the Barbastelle, the
-eyes are set so far back that part of the ear comes round them like a
-horse's blinkers; and one can hardly imagine his being able to see much
-sideways, even if he can see quite well in front. There is just one
-little thing, however, which I have noticed in a large Bat called the
-Noctule, and this may mean that Bats have better eyesight than one would
-at first suppose. The Noctule can make his own eyes "start out of his
-head," until they seem to be almost twice as large as usual. If all Bats
-can do this it is quite likely that very few people have seen their eyes
-properly at all; that is, have seen them as they really appear, when the
-Bats are chasing moths in the twilight.
-
- [Illustration: THE GREATER HORSESHOE--A PIG THAT _DOES_ FLY]
-
- [Illustration: THE GREATER HORSESHOE BAT
- Hanging head downwards. Except when he is flying he always
- carries his tail cocked up over his back, as you see it.]
-
- [Illustration: THE LONG-EARED BAT
- His ears are more than twice as long as his head, and
- beautifully pink and transparent when seen in the right
- light]
-
-I think I will leave the pictures to show you the ugliness of Bats
-generally, though I have purposely put one picture in to show you that
-all Bats are not ugly--for I am sure you will agree with me that the
-little white-fronted Natterer's Bat, has quite a pretty face. I must
-tell you a little more, though, about Bats' ears and noses.
-
-When we were turning, in imagination, our small boy into a Bat, we did
-not trouble ourselves about his ears and nose, but we ought to have done
-so, for there are some very wonderful differences between Bats' ears and
-noses, and the ears and noses of human beings. If you will look at
-anybody's ear carefully you will see that in front of, and just a little
-below the ear-hole, there is a small lump of flesh which points
-backwards across the opening. It is not much to look at in a human
-being, and does not seem to serve any particular purpose, but in many
-Bats it is evidently very important, for it is quite large and takes all
-sorts of curious shapes. It is called the "earlet." Sometimes it is
-pointed, sometimes square, and sometimes rounded. Sometimes it is long
-and thin and tapering like a dagger, and sometimes it is short and thick
-and blunted like a kidney-bean. You will see several of its different
-shapes in the pictures, and you will also see that the leaf-nosed Bats,
-who have such queer ornaments on their noses, do not have it all. Now
-some wise folk think that the ornament on the face of a leaf-nosed Bat,
-which makes him appear so very ugly to our ideas (though I have no doubt
-his wife thinks it very beautiful) may give him a kind of sixth sense
-which is neither seeing, nor smelling, nor hearing, nor feeling, nor
-tasting: a sense, that is, like that which blind people often seem to
-possess and which helps them, poor souls, through their world of
-darkness. If this is so (but you must remember that we can only guess
-about it), it may be that the earlets of Bats do much the same, and
-that, therefore, Bats with earlets have no need of leaf-noses, and Bats
-with leaf-noses have no need of earlets.
-
- [Illustration: THE PIPISTRILLE
- A small Bat and one of the commonest]
-
-
-
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES
- (FEBRUARY)
-
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS TOAD'S SPAWN, WHICH IS LAID IN "ROPES"]
-
-How many of you can tell me the difference between a frog-tadpole and a
-toad-tadpole? I don't mean when they are so small that it seems a
-kindness to call them tadpoles at all, but when they are quite a good
-size, with great fat heads and shiny little eyes and squiggly little
-tails. And how many of you can tell me the number of different kinds of
-tadpoles which one can find in England in the springtime? Most of you, I
-am sure, know a tadpole when you see one (sometimes he is called
-"pot-ladle,"or "polly-wog," or "horse-nail,") and some of you may know
-that a fat frog-tadpole is brown with little specks of gold, while a fat
-toad-tadpole is black all over; but I don't expect many of you know that
-there are two kinds of frog-tadpole, and two kinds of toad-tadpole, and
-three kinds of newt-tadpole, to be met with in England, which makes
-seven kinds of tadpoles in all.
-
-Now as these seven little tadpoles are all different from one another
-(though the two frog-tadpoles and the two toad-tadpoles are not _very_
-different), we may be quite sure that they grow up into seven different
-little beasties. I am going to tell you something about the frog- and
-toad-tadpoles now and leave the newt-tadpoles for another time, for it
-will be easier for you if you don't have too much to remember at once.
-
-If you go into the country in springtime (the middle of March is the
-best time where I live, but in other places it may be a little earlier
-or a little later) and find a pond, or a brook which runs quite slowly,
-or even a hole in swampy ground which has water in it, you are almost
-sure to see a lump of stuff which looks like dirty grey jelly, either
-close to the bank or on the top of some of the weeds.
-
-If you pick up a little of this, you will find (perhaps before it has
-slipped out of your fingers and perhaps after) that it is full of round
-black eggs.
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS FROG'S SPAWN FLOATING ON THE WATER]
-
-The grey jelly is either frog's spawn or toad's spawn.
-
-If it is just a lump with no particular shape to it, it is frog's spawn,
-but if it is made up of small slimy ropes, which come apart from one
-another, and in which the eggs lie in rows like strings of black beads,
-it is toad's spawn. When you find toad's spawn, you may be sure that
-frog's spawn has been about for some time, for frog's spawn is always to
-be found rather earlier in the year. Whichever it may be you should take
-a little of it (quite a little is best) and put it in a glass jam-jar
-half full of water, and stand this in some bright, warm place, where it
-will not get knocked over, and where the sun will not shine directly on
-to it.
-
-Frogs and toads usually lay their eggs in places where the sun _does_
-shine on them and warms them gently, and so hatches them out, but of
-course they do not lay them in glass bottles, and if the sun shines on
-these, the water will get warmer than is good for them, partly because
-there is no other water round to keep it cool, and partly because the
-bottle acts as a kind of burning-glass, and brings too much of the
-sunshine into itself, and so gives too much warmth to the eggs.
-
-Some people think the jelly of frog's or toad's spawn acts like a
-burning-glass too; this, however, is a burning-glass which Mother Nature
-has arranged, and so there is no fear of its not acting properly.
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS FROG'S SPAWN WHEN IT IS QUITE FRESH]
-
-If you find frog's or toad's spawn soon after it is laid, you will see
-only a small quantity of jelly round it, but this soon swells out and
-gets much bigger.
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS FROG'S SPAWN, TOO
- But I have photographed it with a microscope, so that you
- may see it a little bigger than it really is. Right in the
- middle is a Tadpole who has grown his feathery gills, and
- close to him is one like a little alderman. There is
- another Tadpole with gills towards the right hand bottom
- corner, but there is an egg behind which makes his shape
- wrong. All the round things are eggs and the long things
- are Tadpoles which have just hatched]
-
- [Illustration: FROG'S SPAWN
- The Little Curly Tails are beginning to Grow]
-
-Have you ever seen Cook make a jelly? The first thing she does is to
-soak the gelatine in water, so that it gets soft and swells to twice the
-size it was before. It swells because it takes up water inside it, and
-frog's spawn does just the same. Now we must try and think what the
-frog's spawn jelly is for. It is really the white of the eggs, the black
-beads being the yolk. You wouldn't understand all its uses, but one is
-that it makes the frog's spawn much more difficult to eat, because it is
-so slippery. A great many water birds are very fond of frog's spawn and
-would gobble it up very quickly if they had a good, big spoon, instead
-of a rather small bill. As it is, a great deal of frog's spawn and a
-good many tadpoles are eaten up one way or another, which is really
-rather lucky for us, for frogs and toads lay millions and millions of
-eggs, and, if they all hatched out, there wouldn't be room in the world
-for all little frogs and toads.
-
- [Illustration: THE TADPOLES ARE HERE SEEN GETTING VERY LIKE FROGS
- Most of them have all four legs, but one has only his hind
- legs at present]
-
-Well, if you keep your glass bottle with the eggs in it in a good place
-and look at it every day, you will find something fresh to interest you
-every day. First the black yolks will grow larger and change their shape
-so that they seem longer than they are broad, and presently you will
-find that they are turning into tadpoles. The baby tadpole seems much
-too fat to begin with, and sticks out in front like a little alderman;
-but soon he gets slimmer again, and you find that he is growing a curly
-tail (which no alderman ever did), and that there are tiny markings
-where his eyes and mouth are going to be. He is still very small (about
-a quarter of an inch long), but before he is much bigger a very
-wonderful thing happens--it has been happening all the time, though you
-have not been able to see it--he grows a pair of gills like a fish. They
-are delicate, feathery things, and stand out on either side of his head,
-I should like to say "neck," but I do not think I ought to because frogs
-and toads have no necks at all, and so I suppose tadpoles have none
-either. All this time his tail is growing too, and presently it is long
-enough for him to swim with. When this happens he slips out of the jelly
-and wriggles about in the water. At present he has no real mouth, but he
-has a little opening, shaped like a horseshoe, near to where his mouth
-is going to be, and he uses this to hold on to weeds when he is tired,
-which he very soon is at first.
-
-Once he is fairly hatched, however, his mouth grows quickly and he gets
-a pair of rather hard little jaws with which he can nibble the
-water-weed. When this happens you must, of course, put some water-weed
-into the bottle, though grass will do if you can't get anything else.
-
- [Illustration: TADPOLES FULL GROWN
- They are covered with little specks of gold. At the bottom
- one can be seen feeding]
-
-I told you that he had gills like a fish, but they are curious gills at
-this early stage because they have no flap of skin to protect them. If
-you want to see a fish's gills you must lift up the hard flap of skin
-which covers them. The tadpole soon grows a flap of skin, though, just
-like a fish, and this always appears first on the right side, so that at
-one stage he looks as if he had only one gill, the one on the left side.
-When both the flaps of skin have grown, the tadpole is really a little
-fish, and he stays in much the same shape, though he gets fatter and
-fatter, for about a month. At the end of this time he begins to grow
-legs, first the hind ones and then the front ones (newt-tadpoles grow
-the front ones first); but, in spite of his legs, he is still only a
-fish, because, instead of breathing the air with his lungs as a grown-up
-frog does, he breathes the water with his gills. During the next month,
-when he is getting on for three months old, another wonderful change
-comes over him. For a time he breathes both with his lungs (he has to
-put his head out of water for this) and with his gills, and so he is
-both a frog and a fish at once; but he gets more and more like a frog,
-and less and less like a fish. His lungs keep growing inside him, and
-his body and gills and tail get smaller and smaller, and his mouth and
-his eyes and his legs get larger and larger, and presently he leaves the
-water altogether, for he is tired of water-weeds and tired of his tail
-(he can swim beautifully without it), and he wants to make his meals off
-insects and slugs, and to learn how to croak and jump, and to be a great
-fat frog like Mother.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO!
- (VALENTINE'S DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"This is better," gasped Bombinator.
-
-Bombinatrix eyed him anxiously.
-
-Only his waistcoat touched the ground. His eyes and nose had vanished.
-The right of either foot was now the left; the left of either hand was
-now the right; his head, subverted, curled to touch his toes, and, in
-his back, was a deep hollow.
-
-This sounds involved, and that is just what Bombinator was.
-
-"It's awful," said Bombinatrix.
-
-"What do I look like?" spluttered Bombinator. "It's awkward talking to
-your feet."
-
-"You're like--you're like a toadstool," said Bombinatrix, "a crinkled,
-gummy, yellow-spotted toadstool."
-
-"That's the idea," said Bombinator, as he snapped back to shapeliness.
-"Now you try," and Bombinatrix tried.
-
-"Passable," said Bombinator, "but not sufficient curl."
-
-"It cricks my neck," she answered. Her head was slowly drooping.
-
-"You _must_ keep rigid," said Bombinator. "I can't see half the yellow.
-Throw back your head."
-
-Bombinatrix threw back her head, until it grazed her toe-tips. Then she
-unstrung herself.
-
-(I see you look incredulous. You ask and ask with reason: How came two
-fire-toads in an English garden? To this I answer frankly--I put them
-there myself.)
-
-Even a fire-toad loves his liberty, though prison-life may have its
-compensations. The breakfast gong, for instance, two taps upon the
-glass. The sluggish fatted meal-worm, the feeling of full-fed security.
-
-Nor had there been a lack of company.
-
-The Natterjack had livened things--by running races with his own
-reflection. So had the mottled Green Toad, an alien like themselves; so,
-in his own quiet way, the Salamander.
-
- [Illustration: "PASSABLE," SAID BOMBINATOR, "BUT NOT
- SUFFICIENT CURL"]
-
-Each welcomed freedom differently.
-
-The Natterjack went straight into the pond (quite the wrong thing for
-him), and swam with short-legged jerky sweeps up to the water-lilies.
-There he met the Water-Rat, of whom more later. The Green Toad sought
-the nearest tuft of grass, and, scratching with his fore-feet at the
-roots, contrived a roomy burrow. He backed inside and sat there quite
-content, blinking his emerald eyes. The Salamander stayed where he was
-put--and smiled.
-
-The fire-toads climbed upon a stone and practised squiggles--aposematic
-squiggles.
-
-That resonant epithet comes, I think, from Oxford. It means, _you dare
-to touch me and you'll catch it_, or words to that effect. "Apo," get
-out, and "sema," a sign. It is quite simple, really. Yet its
-significance (in toads) may need explaining, and, to be master of the
-sense of it, you must remember that fire-toads, though dusky olive green
-above, are orange red beneath. A patch of orange underneath each hand, a
-patch of orange underneath each foot, an orange patchwork waistcoat.
-
-Now orange is a poison-label. It means in wild-folk speech, "Be
-careful," and yellow means the same; and when black joins the scheme, it
-means, "Be very careful, here is poison."
-
-Sometimes the colour flaunts itself--witness the salamander, or the
-wasp. Sometimes it is concealed, witness the fire-toad. But fire-toads
-have the knack of showing it. Drop one upon his back and there he stays,
-knowing the underpart of him is fearsome. Startle one as he sits at
-ease, and he will flick into a knot, crinkly, immovable, unreal, with
-screaming labels at each corner. To be adept at this, the fire-toad
-needs spare living, one meal, at most two meals a day. When corpulent he
-finds the bend beyond him.
-
-But corpulence is transient in toads. The first to find a waist was
-Bombinator, and Bombinatrix quickly followed. They now could travel with
-less apprehension. They made five equal hops and stopped. Before them
-stretched the pond, green-carpeted, a mirror-patch of water here and
-there, balsam and iris on the fringe of it, and fronting them, upon his
-leaf, the Rat.
-
-The Natterjack had left him, and was swimming landwards. His head bobbed
-with each stroke, and he was slow in coming.
-
-"The surliest brute I ever met," he said.
-
-"The Rat?" said Bombinator.
-
-"The Rat," replied the Natterjack. "He grumbled at my ripples in the
-water--and _he_ makes noise enough. Just listen to him."
-
-The Water-Rat had left his leaf, and now was in the reed-stems. He held
-a two-inch cutting in his paws. They heard his munching plainly.
-
-"This is a queer pond," said the Natterjack; "it's full of noises. A
-shrew-mouse chirped as I swam back, and half a dozen bubbles struck me.
-That means there's something grunting. My yellow stripe! what's that?"
-
-It rose _crescendo_,
-
-"_brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!_"
-
-and finished _amoroso_,
-
-"_KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_"
-
-"I know it," shrieked Bombinator. His little eyes were starting from
-their sockets, as he sat up entranced.
-
-"I know it," echoed Bombinatrix.
-
-"Then you might share your knowledge," snapped the Natterjack. Jealousy
-had convulsed him, for he too can sing.
-
-"A French Frog," cried Bombinator.
-
-"A French Frog," echoed Bombinatrix, and in a rattle came the southern
-notes:
-
-"_brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!_"
-
-"_KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_"
-
-"I'll find him, if I hop all night," said Bombinator.
-
-He plunged aside into the grass, and Bombinatrix followed at his heels.
-
-The Natterjack soon caught them. He ran with little mouse-steps.
-
- [Illustration: HIS LITTLE EYES WERE STARTING FROM THEIR
- SOCKETS AS HE SAT UP ENTRANCED]
-
-"Are you quite prudent?" he jerked out.
-
-"Prudent?" said Bombinator, "why, he's a countryman."
-
-So all three went together, and dropped abreast into the Green Toad's
-burrow.
-
-"Have you heard him?" said Bombinator.
-
-The Green Toad was half dozing.
-
-"Heard what?" he muttered sleepily.
-
-"The French Frog," said Bombinator. "Come out and listen."
-
-They pulled him out between them.
-
- [Illustration: THE WATER-RAT HAD LEFT HIS LEAF AND NOW WAS
- IN THE REED-STEMS. HE HELD A TWO-INCH CUTTING IN HIS PAWS.
- THEY HEARD HIS MUNCHING PLAINLY]
-
-The Green Toad slowly stretched himself.
-
-"_That?_" said he, "that's not French." Then he relapsed to sleep again.
-
-"What did I tell you?" said the Natterjack.
-
-"You told us nothing," said Bombinator. "Let's ask the Salamander."
-
-The Salamander had not moved an inch.
-
-"Is that song French?" the Natterjack inquired.
-
-The Salamander slowly raised his head, curled S-wise out and home again,
-blinked either eye three times, smiled fatuously at each toad in turn,
-and then smiled at the sky.
-
-"Oh, come on!" said the Natterjack. The Natterjack is all on wires, and
-Salamanders madden him.
-
-"_brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!_"
-
-"_KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_"
-
-The Natterjack now led them, faster and faster as the song grew louder,
-hippy-hoppy, hurry-scurry, bumping against the snails and spiders,
-starting the flies and beetles, and rousing every sleeper in the grass.
-
-Small wonder that they soon encountered trouble.
-
-They wakened the King Toad.
-
-Since you last knew him, the King Toad has grown. His waist is fourteen
-inches. His mouth could welcome three small toads abreast.
-
-The fire-toads crouched in front of him (the mouth seemed very wide);
-even the Natterjack hung back, and waited to be spoken to.
-
-Ten minutes passed, and then the King Toad spoke, in slow,
-imperial-measured tones.
-
-"Who are you?" said he, and fixed his royal eye on Bombinator.
-
-Bombinator's mouth was flattened to the ground, and his reply was
-indistinct.
-
-"Speak louder," said the King Toad.
-
-But Bombinator kept his head. If he spoke louder he must move, and, if
-he moved, he might be swallowed.
-
-Once more he muttered with closed lips.
-
-The King Toad slowly raised one foot. Before it reached the ground again
-the Natterjack had vanished. So had the fire-toads, but in different
-fashion. Where they had been were now two spotted toadstools.
-
-"That's a queer trick," said the King meditatively. "Orange underneath I
-see. Risky to eat without inquiries. Come back, Natterjack."
-
- [Illustration: THE SALAMANDER HAD NOT MOVED AN INCH]
-
-Two yellow eyes were peeping round a dock-leaf. The Natterjack slouched
-low in the Presence.
-
-"Have you seen this trick before?" said the King Toad coldly.
-
-"I have, Sire," said the Natterjack.
-
-"Do it yourself," said the King Toad.
-
-"Alas, Sire," said the Natterjack, "I am too stout."
-
-"Not a bad fault," said the King more graciously, "not a bad fault. What
-is the meaning of it?"
-
-"It means, Sire, that my two small friends are frightened."
-
-"Frightened?" said the King Toad; "frightened of what?"
-
-"Of you, Sire."
-
- [Illustration: THE NATTERJACK SLOUCHED LOW INTO THE PRESENCE]
-
-"Of me?" said the King Toad. "Why should a toad fear me? I am the
-Protector of all toads." He swelled himself imperially.
-
- [Illustration: "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS TRICK BEFORE?" SAID
- THE KING TOAD]
-
-"These are strange toads, Sire," said the Natterjack, "they come from
-France."
-
-"France?" said the King; "this must be looked to. The place is being
-overrun with aliens. Undo them, Natterjack."
-
-The Natterjack looked pained.
-
-"Sire," he gasped out, "they're poisonous. I bit one once, and could not
-sing for days."
-
-"Could not sing for days?" said the King. "Could not sing for days?" The
-shadow of a smile played round his mouth.
-
-"Just fetch me that French Frog," he said.
-
-"Sire," said the Natterjack, "it was during our unsuccessful search for
-him that we had the felicity of being so graciously received by your
-Majesty."
-
-"You know him then," said the King, frowning.
-
-"The fire-toads know his song, Sire. At least they said he was a
-countryman."
-
-"They shall be made better acquainted," said the King, "much better
-acquainted. You will find the French Frog by the water's edge, beneath
-the furze-bush. You may go."
-
-The Natterjack went scudding like a mouse.
-
-He started in the wrong direction, but chance befriended him. Climbing
-upon a clump of moss, he opened out the circuit of the pond. The
-furze-bush stood on the far side of it. Its lower branches jutted from
-the bank, and, arching downwards, trailed into the water. From the first
-dip of them spread dancing waves.
-
-The French Frog still was singing, and each note, caught and re-echoed
-overhead, crept down the boughs and rippled to the shore.
-
-So far so good. His goal was plainly visible. But how to get there? He
-made a bee-line for the water's edge, and tumbled down the bank.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-His first idea, to swim, was soon abandoned.
-
-With no clear mark by which to set his course he might swim on till
-nightfall. But if he crept along close to the water? This seemed a
-certainty, so off he started.
-
-It was uneven going. Sometimes a stretch of sticky mud, sometimes the
-mazy reed-stems, and sometimes, where the bank was hollowed out, deep
-water.
-
-The Natterjack was nimble on his feet, and scuttling, crawling,
-swimming, made good progress. Before he paused, the furze-bush rose
-above him. Once in the shade of this, he moved discreetly. He slid from
-stone to stone, and at each stone he rose to reconnoitre. At the fifth
-stone, a bulky slanting one, he sighted the French Frog. The French Frog
-sat absorbed in his own harmonies, his mouthpiece taut, to right and
-left of it two filmy bubble spheres, now swelling now collapsing.
-
-"_brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!_"
-
-"_KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_"
-
-It sounded like a challenge.
-
-The last notes struck the listener squarely. He too could sing. Had he
-not sung against the wood-pecker, yaffle for yaffle, note for note? He
-swelled himself to bursting point, shut both his eyes, strained to their
-uttermost the voice-chords underneath his tongue, and loosed one mighty
-"Yaup!" It cut the last "_Ko-ax_" in half, and as its rattle spent
-itself, he looked to see what came of it. He looked in vain. The French
-Frog was not there.
-
-The Natterjack at first was jubilant (a signal victory this) but quiet
-reflection sobered him.
-
-His mission was to bring the French Frog with him. Now there was no
-French Frog to bring. He searched five yards each way, then gloomily
-retraced his steps.
-
- [Illustration: THE FRENCH FROG SAT ABSORBED IN HIS OWN
- HARMONIES, HIS MOUTHPIECE TAUT, TO RIGHT AND LEFT OF IT,
- TWO FILMY BUBBLE SPHERES, NOW SWELLING, NOW COLLAPSING]
-
-He found the King Toad sleeping, and pausing at a prudent range, croaked
-nervously.
-
-The King Toad made no sign.
-
-He croaked again, and louder.
-
-The King Toad moved uneasily. His eyebrows twitched, and one eye half
-revealed itself. Upper and under lids stayed fast, but, in their
-crescent interval, a third lid fluttered, a filmy, shadowy, cobweb
-thing, which brushed aside the dream-mists.
-
- [Illustration: "I SEE A NATTERJACK," HE SAID, "A
- STARVELING, MOUSE LEGGED NATTERJACK. I SENT FOR A FRENCH
- FROG"]
-
-So in due order, decorously, to open round-eyed vision. The Natterjack
-was palpably distressed.
-
-His mouth drooped dismally; he shuffled each squat foot in turn.
-
-At last the King Toad spoke.
-
-"I see a Natterjack," he said, "a starveling, mouse-legged Natterjack. I
-sent for a French Frog."
-
-"Sire," said the Natterjack, his voice a-quiver, "I f-found him, but he
-v-vanished."
-
-"Fetch him," thundered the King Toad.
-
-The Natterjack fled headlong.
-
-"I shall have to find him," he muttered to himself.
-
-He stumbled on the Salamander. The Salamander, after working for an
-hour, had partially concealed himself. His smiling face alone was
-visible, framed by the grass-stems.
-
-"Have--you--seen--the--French--Frog?" said the Natterjack, as loudly and
-as plainly as he could.
-
- [Illustration: "FETCH HIM," THUNDERED THE KING TOAD.
- THE NATTERJACK FLED HEADLONG]
-
-The Salamander turned his face away and smiled across his shoulder.
-
-"Have--you--seen--the--French--Frog?" the Natterjack repeated.
-
-The Salamander's face came slowly round again, still smiling. It was too
-much; no longer could the Natterjack contain himself. He ducked his head
-and pranced, his legs flung round him anyhow.
-
-So for a mad five minutes; at last he got his answer, suave tones across
-the intervening grass: "Have I seen what?"
-
-The Natterjack plunged straight into the pond. His nerves were
-over-wrought, his heart was racing. But for this cooling dive he must
-have burst. He rose among the lily leaves, and, clutching one, hung
-slantwise. Slowly the madness left him.
-
-Then he commenced to paddle circumspectly.
-
- [Illustration: The Green Toad slowly stretched himself.
- "THAT?" said he, "that's not French."]
-
- [Illustration: At the fifth stone--a bulky slanting one, he
- sighted the French Frog.]
-
-He steered a zig-zag course, and, scanning every leaf in turn, came to
-the outskirts of the cluster. Here he sank slowly down, until his nose
-alone was visible. The leaf on his right hand was moving. A ripple ran
-the length of it; then, close beside its stalk, appeared a snout, a
-quivering trembling snout; then two bead eyes; then a trim velvet body.
-The Natterjack brought up his head again. No danger here, only a water
-Shrew-mouse. The Shrew-mouse took no heed of him. She swam the circuit
-of her leaf three times, dived once or twice, then climbed upon its
-surface. Here she performed her toilet. The goggle-eyes in no way
-disconcerted her. At length the Natterjack found words:
-
-"Can you tell me," he said, politely, "where the French Frog has got to?"
-
-The Shrew-mouse gave a little jump. She had been combing out her tail,
-which was important.
-
-"The French Frog?" she said; "the French Frog? I'm sick of the French
-Frog. What between him and the Water Rat--and the queer thing is that
-neither of them seems to know that the other----"
-
-"Of course, he's very fond of me," she added. "Every day he sings _at_
-me, and so, of course, when he comes my way, I have to _ask_ him to
-sing; and the worst of it is, when I _ask_ him to sing, he _does_ sing."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"I think that might be cured," said the Natterjack, "if you can tell me
-where he is."
-
-"Where did you see him last?" said the Shrew-mouse.
-
-"Under the furze-bush," said the Natterjack.
-
-"Under the furze-bush?" echoed the Shrew-mouse; "perhaps then I can find
-him. Swim behind me."
-
-She slid so neatly off her leaf that not a drop of water reached her
-back. Then she commenced to paddle, her feet alternate, her square tail
-trailing, her nose and face awash. Twin ripples spread on either side of
-her, and, in between them, though their distance widened, the Natterjack
-swam stoutly, using his squat hind-legs alone, short jerky thrusts of
-them, and losing at each stroke.
-
-He reached the shore two yards behind, but yet in time to see the last
-of her, a fluttering wavy tail-tip, which skimmed the summit of a stone
-and disappeared behind it.
-
-This was disheartening. The Natterjack had spent his strength, and quick
-pursuit was out of question. He paused and stretched each limb in turn,
-scratched his chin doubtfully, and looked about him. He looked first at
-the water, then at the stone to fix it in his memory, and lastly at the
-bank above. Here his eyes rested, expressionless at first,
-lack-lustrous, but presently, with quickened interest, sparkling.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-It must be, yes it was, the self-same furze-bush. He stared intently. It
-was the self-same stone. Perhaps the French Frog still was close at
-hand; perhaps the Shrew-mouse knew his hiding-place.
-
-He flung his tiredness off him, and started running jauntily.
-
-He had not far to go. Two scurries brought him to the stone, two
-scrambles to its summit.
-
-There was the Shrew-mouse just below.
-
-She was too occupied to note his coming. She coursed along the water's
-edge, her head dropped low, her face almost submerged. At times she
-paused and sniffed the air, her nose upturned and crinkly, her bristles
-fan-shape. Then she would drop her head again and probe the water.
-
-The Natterjack watched quietly for a while, but soon impatience mastered
-him. He crept down and addressed her timidly.
-
-"You said you might find the French Frog," he began.
-
-"I have found him," said the Shrew-mouse; "he's down there--as usual."
-
-"Down where?" said the Natterjack.
-
-"Down in the water," said the Shrew-mouse, "down at the bottom of this
-pool, a good foot down."
-
-"Would you mind asking him to come up?" said the Natterjack.
-
-"I've asked him for five minutes," said the Shrew-mouse. "He must be
-fast asleep. I know he's there; I've seen his bubbles."
-
-"How can we wake him?" said the Natterjack.
-
-"You'd better dive," said the Shrew-mouse.
-
-Now Natterjacks are bad enough at swimming; at diving they are hopeless.
-
-"In you go," said the Shrew-mouse.
-
-For very shame the Natterjack went in.
-
-He swam to what he judged a likely spot, ducked down his head, his hands
-pressed tight against it, and lunged with both hind-legs. These,
-splashing on the surface, urged him on, but not one inch below.
-
-Five times he tried, and five times his fat body, when half submerged,
-shot up and bobbed afloat.
-
- [Illustration: FIVE TIMES HE TRIED, AND FIVE TIMES HIS
- FAT BODY, WHEN HALF SUBMERGED, SHOT UP AND BOBBED
- AFLOAT]
-
-The Shrew-mouse rocked with laughter.
-
-"Again, Natterjack!" she cried. "Again! again!"
-
-Shame-faced, he paddled back to shore.
-
-"Be charitable, Shrew-mouse, be charitable. I did my best."
-
-The Shrew-mouse looked at him inquiringly. "Never mind, Natterjack," she
-said, "I'll fetch him. It's hardly the right thing to do, but still----"
-
- [Illustration: THE SHREW-MOUSE DREW ALL FOUR FEET
- TOGETHER AND SLITHERED EEL-WISE OFF THE LEDGE]
-
-She climbed a ledge, drew all four feet together, and slithered off it
-eel-wise. She swam a yard and dived. The water closed like oil upon her
-going. Ten seconds passed and then she reappeared.
-
-"He's coming, Natterjack," she said, and landed close beside him. The
-French Frog shot up like a cork, and half of him splashed clear above
-the surface. He took two strokes to reach the shore, and came out moist
-and shiny. He bristled with apologies--"It was unpardonable. He was
-altogether desolated. That a lady should have had to dive for him. Alas!
-he had been dreaming, and his dream, like all his dreams----"
-
- [Illustration: HE BRISTLED WITH APOLOGIES]
-
-The Shrew-mouse cut him short.
-
-"The King Toad has heard your singing," she said, "and has commanded your
-presence. The Natterjack will guide you."
-
-Ambition strove with gallantry, and, for a time, the French Frog wavered.
-
-"And have I your permission, Shrew-mouse?" he said, at last.
-
-"Please go," said she, "then come and tell me all about it." So both
-departed. The Shrew-mouse watched them out of sight, then swam to open
-water. She wished the Rat to see her next.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Sire," said the Natterjack, "it is my privilege to inform you that I
-have been successful."
-
-The King Toad made no answer. His eyes turned from the Natterjack to his
-companion, and, after an appropriate pause, he signed with one fore-foot.
-
-The French Frog tiptoed forward.
-
-"I have heard your singing," said the King Toad, "and your singing has
-annoyed me intensely."
-
-There was a queer strained silence.
-
-The Natterjack turned to conceal his face, and saw the Green Toad
-perched above him. He too was struggling to keep countenance. Beside him
-was the Salamander, wreathed in smiles.
-
- [Illustration: THE GREEN TOAD, TOO, WAS STRUGGLING TO
- KEEP COUNTENANCE]
-
-"Your singing has annoyed me intensely," repeated the King Toad.
-
-Words failed the French Frog, who could only gulp.
-
-"Sire," he burst out at length, "it was a love-song."
-
-"A love-song!" said the King Toad, "a love-song! and what nice-minded
-English frog would listen to _your_ love-song?"
-
- [Illustration: HIS INSIDE WAS RED-HOT]
-
-The French Frog might have scored a point, but prudence checked him.
-
-"I am a poor exile, Sire," he said, "and, when I sing, my heart is far
-away."
-
-"So will your voice be, soon," said the King affably. "Come out,
-fire-toads." The fire-toads squirmed from underneath him.
-
-The French Frog eyed them greedily. There are worse eatables than little
-toads.
-
-"You may have the big one," said the King.
-
-"Sire!" screamed Bombinatrix.
-
-But she was too late. The French Frog's mouth had closed again, and all
-now visible of Bombinator was one distraught hind leg.
-
- [Illustration: HE LAY AS HE HAD FALLEN ON HIS BACK]
-
-"Excellent," murmured the King Toad, and watched the French Frog
-narrowly. He was worth watching. He paled a dirty ochre, his eyes rolled
-horribly, he scratched his sides with both hind feet, he dragged at his
-own throat, he gasped and foamed and spluttered.
-
-"Most interesting," said the King.
-
-But there was more to follow. The French Frog straddled with his toes
-wide spread; then came an uncontrollable explosion, which flung him four
-feet skywards, and, at the height of this great leap, loosed Bombinator.
-
-Two thuds were heard, the first a sounding, floppy one, the second
-farther off and duller.
-
-"I thought that would happen," said the King Toad.
-
-The French Frog slowly pulled himself together, climbed up the slope,
-and sat with mouth agape. His inside was red-hot.
-
-The Natterjack burst into song, the Green Toad joined him, the
-Salamander laughed outright, but Bombinatrix, with a heavy heart, hopped
-silently away.
-
-She was not long in finding him. He lay, as he had fallen, on his back,
-his hands and feet outspread, his poor throat twitching. But he still
-breathed, breathed in short, wheezy, gasping sobs, which made his whole
-frame shudder.
-
-She crept up close and whispered. I cannot tell you what she said, but
-Bombinator caught the sense of it. He stretched his legs as far as they
-would go, and clasped his hands beneath his chin. This seemed to ease
-his breathing, and presently, from every pore, welled a bead-drop of
-moisture. He lay thus for an hour, and Bombinatrix mounted guard beside
-him.
-
-At last he moved, but Bombinatrix checked him instantly. "Down, Toad of
-mine," she whispered, "down for your dear life!"
-
-"What is it now?" he groaned.
-
-"Ducks," whispered Bombinatrix, "Great, Fat, White Ducks!"
-
- [Illustration: "DUCKS," WHISPERED BOMBINATRIX, "GREAT,
- FAT, WHITE DUCKS"]
-
-
-
-
- ANIMALS' NESTS
- (MARCH)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-When a young friend of mine told me the other day that he was going
-birds'-nesting, and I told him in reply that I was going animal-nesting,
-I think that, if he had not been a very polite young friend, he would
-have laughed at me. As it was he laughed _with_ me--which was really
-very nice of him, for he must have been thinking all the time that I was
-laughing at _him_. But I was quite serious really. I _was_ going
-animal-nesting. I hear you ask at once, "What animal was it?" and I
-might tease you by saying, "Any animal, of course. When you go
-birds'-nesting you look for any kind of bird's nest _you_ can find, and
-when I go animal-nesting, I look for any kind of animal's nest _I_ can
-find." But I won't do that, because there are only a few animals' nests
-which can be found in the same way in which you find birds' nests. All
-animals make some kind of nest for their babies, and most of them make
-some kind of nest to sleep in too. They make them in such queer,
-out-of-the-way places, though, that it would be quite impossible for any
-boy or girl, let alone a man or woman, to find them; for the first thing
-to be done would be to choose the right hole in the ground, and the next
-thing to be done would be to crawl down it. Some animals, however, make
-nests which are not in burrows, and though these are not nearly so easy
-to find as birds' nests, they can be found if you know the sort of place
-to look for them in.
-
-There are four animals in this country whose nests can be found without
-having to dig, and these are the mole, the squirrel, the dormouse, and
-the harvest-mouse. Three of these build their nests above the ground,
-and the fourth, "the little gentleman in black velvet," builds the
-ground above his nest. I am going to tell you something about this one
-(the mole) first, because his nest, I think, is the easiest to see. I
-expect most of you know those queer little heaps of earth which are
-sometimes dotted about the fields and are called mole-hills (I want you
-to keep these in your minds for the moment), and I expect those of you
-who have got a natural history book will have seen a picture of what is
-called a mole fortress. I want you to put that out of your mind
-altogether; it is quite wrong. Now, the little mole-hills never have a
-nest in them, and I am not quite sure why the moles make so many, but if
-you ever find a really big hill among the little ones, as big as six or
-seven of these heaped together, and grub down into it (it is quite soft,
-and you can do this with your hands if you don't mind getting dirty),
-you will find a mole's nest just about the place where you would find
-the grass growing if there was no hill at all. In May or June you may
-find the baby moles. Have a good look at them and put them back, for you
-won't be able to keep them alive, and the mother mole is sure to come
-back and look after them--when you have gone.
-
- [Illustration: FOUR MOLES' NESTS TOGETHER. THE BIG HILLOCK
- OF EARTH ABOVE THEM HAS ALL BEEN TAKEN AWAY SO THAT THEY
- COULD BE PHOTOGRAPHED]
-
-Another animal's nest which is easy to find is the squirrel's, but of
-course it is no use looking for this anywhere but in woods and places of
-that kind where you know there are squirrels about. A squirrel's nest is
-in a hole, or fork of a tree, and always, always out of reach. When it
-is in a fork of a tree it looks like an untidy bird's-nest, made of
-rather big twigs. It has a soft, warm lining, though, and, if you can
-get up to it, you may find the baby squirrels inside in June. If they
-are furry you can take them away, for then they are quite easy to bring
-up and tame.
-
- [Illustration: THE SQUIRREL. "SQUIRREL MEANS SHADOWTAIL"]
-
-Then there is the harvest-mouse's nest, which is the most beautifully
-made of all, and is usually to be found in cornfields, built some way up
-the stalks, and looking just like a bird's-nest except that it is quite
-round and has no opening that you can see. One can't very well walk
-about in a cornfield, but you have another chance of finding a
-harvest-mouse's nest in the hay-time, for they often build in the hay,
-and once I found one with babies in it, on a haycock, where it had been
-thrown without any one noticing it.
-
- [Illustration: THE HARVEST MOUSE'S NEST
- The most beautifully made of all]
-
-You have two chances, too, of finding a dormouse's nest, for this mouse
-builds one nest for the babies, and another to sleep in through the
-winter. Both of them are rather big compared with the harvest-mouse's
-nest, and they are generally made of moss and leaves, often honeysuckle
-leaves, which the mother dormouse seems to like, though I can't tell you
-why.
-
-The dormouse often makes a sleeping-nest at the side of a path through a
-wood, and does not seem to fasten it very carefully, for one sometimes
-finds it in the middle of a path, as if the dormouse had turned over in
-his sleep and sent the whole thing rolling. It may be, though, that some
-hungry animal has pulled the nest out, and thinking the dormouse dead,
-preferred to take the chance of finding something alive and warm, and so
-left it.
-
-If you ever find a sleeping dormouse, which will feel quite cold, you
-should take the nest and all and keep it somewhere out of doors. For if
-you bring it into a warm house, it will wake up before its proper time
-and very likely die; but if you leave it alone until the spring comes,
-it will wake up as Mother Nature meant it to, and you will have a pet
-which you will like much better than one which you looked at in a shop
-window, and could not resist buying.
-
- [Illustration: THE DORMOUSE]
-
-Now there are other things for you to learn about animals' nests besides
-the kind of places in which you may hope to find them. To begin with,
-you must remember that an animal has not got the beautiful little
-nest-making tool which a bird has--I mean, of course, a beak. A bird's
-beak is used something like a knitting-needle, to thread the little
-wisps of hay and feathers and moss and things like that in and out and
-round about, until they stick where the beak tells them. I expect that
-animals use their teeth a little in the same way, but they use them
-more, I think, in biting leaves into strips, in softening hard stalks,
-and cutting thick grasses into thin ones, and I feel sure that they
-would find knitting very awkward, because of their thick lips. Most
-animals, instead of building a nest in front of themselves, build it
-round themselves. The first thing they do is to collect a little store
-of nest-material, and this they manage by biting and nibbling at
-anything which they think will be nice and soft, and carrying it away in
-their mouths. I expect most of you have seen a house-mouse's nest. It is
-usually made of scraps of paper and wool and fluff and other little
-rubbishes, which they can pick up behind the walls and under the floor.
-Sometimes, though, Mousey is not content with a common kind of nest, and
-gets into a hat-box and spoils a pretty hat, or into a drawer and spoils
-valuable papers. Once a mouse nibbled the date and the signature off a
-valuable paper of mine. That was all she took, but it gave me a great
-deal of trouble, for it was a legal paper, and it had to be done all
-over again. Sometimes Mousey chooses even queerer places. I will tell
-you three I have heard of; the first was a tin of gunpowder, the second
-was a box of cigars, and the third was a plum cake. The last sounds the
-nicest, doesn't it? But mousey is very fond of tobacco, and I have often
-seen her, when the house was quiet, nibbling at scraps of tobacco which
-I had dropped on the carpet.
-
- [Illustration: A DORMOUSE'S NURSERY NEST, BUILT IN A FURZE BUSH]
-
-The first thing that animals do, then, is to collect a little store of
-nest material. The next thing is to dive right into the middle of it.
-When they are well in the middle, they begin turning over and over, with
-a tug here and a push there, and little curls and flicks of the tail
-(the Harvest Mouse has the most useful tail of any of our animals, and
-that, I think, is one reason why his nest is so neat), until in a very
-short time they have scooped out a hollow in the ball of grass, or
-whatever it may be, and are sitting inside it. Sometimes they have to
-come out and get some more grass, and then the outside of the nest,
-which is quite springy, closes up like a little trapdoor behind them,
-and they have to make a fresh way in.
-
- [Illustration: THE HARVEST MOUSE]
-
-
-
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES
- (APRIL)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-I expect that most of you have seen some of the wonderful foreign
-beetles, whose wing-covers gleam and sparkle with colour as though they
-were studded with jewels; and some of you, perhaps, may have envied the
-small Black Folks down south, who have the chance of finding such
-beautiful things. But if you have a microscope, or even a magnifying
-glass, or if you know some one who will lend you either, you need not
-envy the small Black Folks at all, for here, in our own dear country,
-there are hosts and hosts of beetles as beautiful as any in the world.
-But there is always a something, isn't there? and the something in this
-case is that they are so very, very small. There is another something,
-and that is that nearly all of them have such very, very long names. The
-reason for this is that the young people were not the first to find
-them. If they had done so they would certainly have given them names
-which grownups could understand, just as the young people of long ago
-christened Tom-Tit and Jenny Wren, and Daddy Long-legs and Flitter
-Mouse. All these names have lived since they were first made, and they
-will live, I think, long after some much more learned names for the same
-things have been altogether forgotten.
-
-Now I must tell you how to find these beautiful little beetles, and I
-think that you will be able to find them very soon after you have read
-these lines, for the spring-time will have come, and the May will have
-flowered, and there is nothing that the little beetles like better than
-May-buds. All you have to do is to find a May-tree (it doesn't matter if
-it is white or pink, and it needn't even be a May-tree so long as there
-is plenty of blossom on it) and hit one of the branches with a stick,
-and hold a butterfly-net, or an old umbrella, or a piece of newspaper,
-or even your hat (an old hat is best) underneath, and catch what falls
-from the branches. You will find all sorts of things, but among them
-there are sure to be some tiny long-snouted beetles which are called
-Rhynchophora. That is a dreadful name, isn't it? but I think that the
-English word "weevils" is just as ugly. Though they are very small
-indeed, you will see at once that they have very wonderful colours.
-Probably you will catch an emerald-green one, and a sky-blue one, and
-perhaps a little square-shaped scarlet one, which is not very uncommon,
-and there may come a red-letter day when you catch one of the most
-beautiful little beetles in the world, who is green and crimson and
-gold. I have done this twice myself.
-
- [Illustration: THE STAG-BEETLE]
-
-There are so many different beetles in our country that no one has ever
-collected all of them. Most are very small indeed, like the weevils, but
-a few are quite big, and I am showing you pictures of some of the
-largest.
-
-Perhaps I ought to tell you how to know a beetle when you see one. This
-sounds easy enough, but it is not quite as easy as it sounds. All
-beetles have six legs (beetles' bodies are divided into three parts, and
-the legs grow out of the middle part); nearly all of them have strong,
-horny covers for their wings, and all of them have their skeletons
-outside. This sounds a very topsy-turvy arrangement, but it is quite
-true. We have our bones inside, and our flesh outside, but beetles have
-their bones outside and their flesh inside. Sometimes you may see
-beetles crushed flat in the road, but often they are trodden on or run
-over without being killed; and the reason for this is that their hard,
-outside skeletons prevent their soft insides from being altogether
-squashed up. Once I ran over a Stag-beetle on my bicycle--it was nearly
-dark at the time, and I was over him before I could get out of his way.
-Now a big Stag-beetle weighs about an eighth of an ounce, and I am
-rather a heavy person--indeed, with my bicycle thrown in I should think
-that I must weigh over two hundredweight, which is about thirty thousand
-times as much as the Stag-beetle. You can imagine how surprised I was to
-find that the Stag-beetle was not hurt. I ought to tell you, though,
-that the road was soft, and that my bicycle-tyres were not blown up
-hard, so perhaps the Stag-beetle did not get all my weight on his
-back--but, anyhow, it was a wonderful escape for him, wasn't it?
-
- [Illustration: THE STAG-BEETLE
- This is the one that I ran over on my bicycle]
-
-The two largest beetles in this country are the Stag-beetle and the
-Great Black Water Beetle. I am not sure which should really be called
-the larger of the two, for it seems hardly fair to count the
-Stag-beetle's antlers, and if we leave these out, I fancy that the Great
-Black Water Beetle has the bigger body. It is curious that these two
-large beetles should be such quiet, easy-going things, and that they
-should never dream of eating beetles smaller than themselves.
-
- [Illustration: THE FEMALE STAG-BEETLE, WHOSE ANTLERS
- ARE QUITE SHORT, AND TWO STAG-BEETLE GRUBS]
-
- [Illustration: THE GREAT WATER BEETLE
- Who looks as if he was silver-plated underneath]
-
-But so it is, for both of them, the Stag-beetle on land and the Great
-Water Beetle in the ditch, eat scarcely anything at all, and, when they
-do eat, are quite content to suck the juices out of plants. One reason
-for these big beetles eating so little is, I think, the very long time
-which they have for feeding while they are caterpillars--beetle
-caterpillars, by the way, are always called "grubs" or "larvæ," and
-beetle chrysalises are called "pupæ." The grubs of the Stag-beetle live
-on decaying wood (you may sometimes find them at the bottom of an old
-gate post which has decayed under the ground), and take three or four
-years to become "full-fed." The grub of the Great Water Beetle spends
-all his time (three or four years, too, I expect) in the water, and I
-think he feeds on decaying plants, but I am not sure of this. Some
-people say that the Stag-beetle uses his great antlers to crush twigs
-and leaves so as to get the juice. This may be so, but I have never seen
-him do it.
-
- [Illustration: THE MUSK BEETLE
- Who has a very nice smell]
-
-Another big and beautiful insect is the Musk Beetle. As you see in the
-picture, he has very long horns and a narrow body. He is a beautiful
-bronze green all over, and must be a wonderful sight when he is flying
-in the sunshine. I have never seen him fly myself, but people who have
-say that his legs and horns stream out behind him, so that he must look
-like a little green Heron. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about him,
-however, is his scent. I expect most of you know those little round pink
-sweets which are called "cachous." He smells just like the taste of
-those, and that is why he is called Musk Beetle.
-
-Another big beetle I have to show you is the Cockchafer. You must look
-at his picture carefully, because it shows you how a beetle lifts up his
-hard wing-covers when he is going to fly. Some beetles, the Burying
-Beetle for one, turn these wing-covers almost upside down when they are
-flying, so that the hollowed side is uppermost. I expect that this helps
-to keep them up when they are flying, and perhaps it helps them to start
-as well.
-
- [Illustration: THE COCKCHAFER RAISING ITS WING-COVERS
- JUST BEFORE TAKING FLIGHT]
-
-Of course you have all heard of the wonderful flying machines which are
-now being made. To fly at all, you must be able to do three things: lift
-yourself up, keep yourself up, and move about. If you can do these three
-things just as quickly and just as slowly as you want to, you will be
-able to fly perfectly. The hardest puzzle of all is how to make a
-machine which will keep itself up (and the right way up too) without
-moving about very quickly. This is what many birds can do so
-beautifully, and I expect that in time (all great inventions take a long
-time to make perfect, and they are never the work of one man alone, but
-rather of one man helped by the work of many men who lived before him)
-machines will be made in which men will be able to fly as perfectly as
-birds. At present they only fly as perfectly as beetles, but that they
-should be able to do this is a very wonderful thing. The great
-difference, in flying, between a beetle and a bird like a gull, is that
-the beetle has to keep going full speed all the time, or else he will
-tumble down to the ground, while a bird like a gull can poise balanced
-in the air, with just a flap or turn of his wings now and then to keep
-himself the right way up.
-
- [Illustration: THE CHURCHYARD BEETLE
- When this Beetle is cross, he puts his head down, and rears
- up backwards as if he were going to kick]
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- BUNNY RABBIT
- (LADY DAY)
-
-AUTHOR'S NOTE
-
-There are "go-to-bury" rabbits and "stub" rabbits. The "go-to-bury"
-rabbits have the longest ears, but the "stub" rabbits, as any stoat will
-tell you, are the best for dinner.
-
-Moreover, there are rabbits and bunny rabbits--but all were bunny
-rabbits once.
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Bunny Rabbit missed the bluebells, though these rang in his birth.
-
-Up rose the kingly foxgloves, tier upon tier of them pink-purple, but
-Bunny Rabbit missed these too.
-
-A golden world--the ragwort blazing on the slope, below the mellowing
-corn-field, and, mantling primrose hills, the dawn.
-
-Now Bunny Rabbit was ready.
-
-The burrow winds in four sharp turns, and, at each one, he stubbed his
-nose. This through a mad desire to keep near Mother; for Mother's tail
-bobbed in quick jerks, shaving each corner to a hair, and he and all his
-brothers raced to catch it. They reached the entrance packed as one, but
-Bunny Rabbit, squirming clear, shot past the uplifted paw, butted his
-waiting Father, flung off him like a smoke-puff, and landed on his back
-six feet below.
-
-That is why he has a separate history.
-
-It was indeed sharp change of circumstance. The nursery had been
-pitch-black, though one short gleam of light had reached it daily. That
-was when Mother Rabbit snatched her food, and sealed the entrance up for
-fear of Father. At other times she screened her babies' eyes. So now the
-sunshine blinded Bunny Rabbit, and pointed grass-stems pricked a skin
-which nothing harder than breast-fur had touched.
-
- [Illustration: AND LANDED ON HIS BACK SIX FEET BELOW]
-
-He took some minutes to collect his wits, then twisted upright, and,
-with frightened eyes, sought guidance.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-But for the woolscrap all would have been well.
-
-Mother Rabbit was close at hand, feeding his brothers with small sprigs
-of green. Father Rabbit was close too. The sight of his lost wife had
-softened him. He purred approval. He licked the children's noses.
-
-Assuredly the lost would have been found, but for the woolscrap. The
-woolscrap fluttered, wind-borne, down the slope, and Bunny Rabbit
-nature-taught, went after it.
-
-It led him far.
-
-It caught on brambles and then flicked away. It plunged in little
-valleys. It mounted little hills. It bobbed and jerked and twisted, and
-Bunny Rabbit, panting hard, pursued.
-
-At last he caught it, checked upon a grass-stem, and--_it wasn't Mother
-after all_!
-
- [Illustration: It wasn't Mother after all!]
-
-Bunny Rabbit sat down bewildered. He was hot with running; his ears were
-prickly, his coat was rumpled. He combed his ears out, one by one,
-brushed down his face, and nibbled all the fur that he could reach. Then
-he felt better.
-
- [Illustration: HE COMBED HIS EARS OUT, ONE BY ONE]
-
-The morning breeze gained appetite and sent the woolscrap once more on
-its travels. Bunny Rabbit took no heed of it--he watched and heard the
-awakening of the wood. Bird notes, that in the burrow had been restful,
-now screamed and whistled in his ear. Out from the shelter-side of
-leaves, out from the heart of flowers, out from the grass-stems and from
-earth itself, came whirring, humming, buzzing insects. In this new
-myriad-peopled world there seemed small room for loneliness. A red mouse
-bobbed up from his hole, stared at him curiously, then whisked about and
-vanished. Bright eyes bejewelled the grass-tufts. Here a flick-footed
-lizard, here a slow-trailing blindworm, here a squat toad. The day-moths
-woke and flitted leaf to leaf. The bee-fly clambered up the thyme,
-poised hovering, vanished slantwise, and vanishing, reappeared.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-This was full entertainment, and Bunny Rabbit stared round-eyed. He
-stared till hunger gripped him. His brothers, a bare hundred yards away,
-already had acquired the art of nibbling. He had no teacher, and no wits
-by which to teach himself. So, though food lay on every side, he
-starved. He felt a craving he had never known; a tightening of his
-fluffy body; an ache for Mother. Mother would set things straight for
-him, but where to find her was beyond his reasoning.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-He wandered aimlessly this way and that; he nosed the bushes aimlessly;
-he stepped on Berus the Adder, because to him an adder, neatly coiled,
-was merely speckled ground.
-
-Berus the Adder, though infuriate, forebore to strike. Venom is far too
-precious to be squandered, and baby rabbits are too large to swallow. He
-swayed his ugly head, and slowly, very slowly, he stretched forward.
-This was enough for Bunny Rabbit, who spun about and left the wind
-behind.
-
- [Illustration: HE WATCHED AND HEARD THE AWAKENING OF THE WOOD]
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Before he had been lured by Hope, now Terror thrust her goad at him. He
-leapt two thorn-stumps blindly, and, stumbling, plunged head-deep into
-the ant-hill.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The ant-hill covers two square yards of ground, and every inch of it is
-peopled. Though soft, it is no place to fall on. Its citizens resent
-intrusion--nay, more, resent it actively.
-
-When Bunny Rabbit reached the grass he felt the pricking of a thousand
-needles. The pain and smart of them half maddened him. He rolled upon
-his back; he scraped his neck on stones; he writhed; he bit himself.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The pain eased as his torturers dropped off him. Once more he tried to
-run, but in ten yards his strength was gone. His fore-paws flopped and
-stumbled, his hind paws dragged, his nose was bruised, his coat was hot
-and steamy. So he flung down bewildered, scraped an imaginary bed (a
-poor half-hearted scraping), slid out his feet, and lay full length,
-eyes closed.
-
- [Illustration: BERUS THE ADDER]
-
-Nothing now seemed to matter much. The hornet moth came whirring past
-his ears, he never heard it; the drone fly danced upon his nose, he
-never felt it; the Man lay almost at his side, he never saw him. Poor
-tired-out baby! Nature had ordered sleep and so he slept.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The Man woke slowly. Nature had been his comfort, too, though sleep had
-not refreshed him. He rose half-dreaming, with a smile. "All right,
-little girl," he said; then his face tightened. "It's the same place,"
-he muttered, "just where we lost the locket. First bluebell, then
-foxglove, then ragwort; blue, purple, and gold. It was the gold she
-loved."
-
-The woodland rang with voices, but Bunny Rabbit slept until man spoke.
-Then he leapt up and found himself a prisoner.
-
-"You sha'n't be hurt, Bunny," said the Man.
-
-Bunny Rabbit ceased his wriggling, and lay quite limp, his eyes
-upturned, his nose a-quiver.
-
-"Why lying in the open?" said the Man "foolish, foolish Bunny. What's to
-be done with you? Stoats and foxes and hawks, Bunny. You can't be left,
-that's certain. You can't be taken to your Mother, for I don't know your
-Mother. You can't be taken to your hole, for I don't know your hole.
-Hungry, Bunny? You look as though you'd travelled. Try some grass."
-
-Bunny Rabbit knew nothing of grass and kept his teeth tight-clenched.
-
-"You must eat something," said the Man.
-
-He loosed one hand to reach a groundsel-top, and Bunny Rabbit, squirming
-clear, slipped deep into his pocket.
-
-"Well, it's your own choice, Bunny. Now you come home with me."
-
-It was dark and warm and soft inside the pocket. The Man took swinging
-downhill strides, and, at each stride, the folds changed shape. Now they
-were loose and twisty, and Bunny Rabbit stretched full length to fill
-them. Now they were tightened to a ball, and Bunny Rabbit tightened as
-the centre.
-
-The Man paused as he reached the corn, and stepped two paces up again.
-He stooped, and Bunny Rabbit was inverted. He rose, and Bunny Rabbit
-found his feet. But now he was more cramped than ever. He lay deep in
-the farthest corner. Over, and on all sides of him, was packed a
-stifling mass of green.
-
-Then Bunny Rabbit used his teeth, axe-fashion at first, but soon to
-better purpose. The lesson that he should have long since learnt was now
-enforced by circumstance.
-
-He bit and tasted.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Bunny Rabbit," said the Man, "your ears are abnormal."
-
-Bunny Rabbit lay crouched upon the hearthrug, blinking. At first he had
-found covert in the curtains, but these had been looped up. Then he had
-squeezed behind the bookcase and been, with difficulty, extracted. Then
-he had set himself to dig. The carpet had repaid him with some fluff.
-The doormat and the wicker chair seemed promising, but he made little
-headway, and so had lain down tired.
-
- [Illustration: LAY FULL LENGTH, EYES CLOSED]
-
-"Very abnormal ears, Bunny," the Man went on. "This smacks of the
-domestic. Then why so frightened?"
-
-But Bunny Rabbit was more tired than frightened.
-
-"More food, Bunny?" A bunch of green had lain upon the floor but every
-scrap had vanished.
-
-"You've had enough for one day, Bunny. It's bedtime, up you come."
-
-So Bunny Rabbit slept that night on blankets, he and the moonshine. The
-Man tossed restlessly and Bunny Rabbit watched his moving lips. Twilight
-crept in soft-footed, and Bunny Rabbit took three little jumps and
-wormed inside the bed-clothes.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Slept well, Bunny?" said the Man; "it's more than I have. I've made my
-mind up, Bunny. I'm going. I can't bear the house. I can't bear the
-rooms. They're empty, empty, empty."
-
-The Man stepped slowly down the stairs and Bunny Rabbit stumbled after
-him. He reached the hall and paused, then caught up Bunny Rabbit, and
-once more ascended. He entered every upstairs room and gazed as though
-to clinch them on his memory. He entered every downstairs room, and in
-one room, the loneliest of all, he sat and cried his heart out.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"We're homeless, Bunny Rabbit," said the Man. "But you're the better
-off, for your home's somewhere here."
-
-They had got half-way up the slope. The Man stood tall among the
-ragwort, and Bunny Rabbit, with wide, frightened eyes, clung to his
-shoulder.
-
-The Man stooped down, and Bunny Rabbit slid to earth.
-
-"Now you must find your home or make one," said the Man, and Bunny
-Rabbit straightway tried to make one. He plunged his forepaws in the
-ground and scratched. The dust flew out behind and, in the midst, shot
-something hard and glittering.
-
-It was a small gold locket.
-
-The Man bent down and picked it up. He opened it and with dimmed eyes he
-kissed it.
-
-"You've done me a good turn," he said--"of course it's pure
-coincidence," and Bunny Rabbit watched him out of sight.
-
- [Illustration: BUNNY RABBIT WATCHED HIM OUT OF SIGHT]
-
-
-
-
- A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX
- (MAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-I wonder how many of my young readers know why these dainty flying
-creatures are called "Butterflies"?
-
-We all know what butter is, and we know, too, that there are quite a
-number of English words which begin with "butter." It is not a pretty
-beginning, is it? But there it is. Let us think of a few--_butter_-fly,
-_butter_-cup, _butter_-wort, _butter_-fingers, _butter_-scotch--why, one
-can think of half a dozen straight away.
-
-Now this shows us clearly that "butter" is a very old word, and that the
-people of long ago (who were much less clever than we are, perhaps) must
-have used it quite naturally when they wanted to describe anything which
-was squashy, or pasty, or greasy, or slippery, or yellow.
-
-Look at the picture at the top of the next page. I wish I could have
-given it to you in its proper colours. It looks much nicer like that.
-Look at it carefully. No other English butterfly has the same pretty
-curves to its wings, and some of you, I dare say, will know what it is
-by its shape. But I must tell those who do not know. It is a Brimstone
-Butterfly, and its colour is bright, bright yellow with an orange spot
-in the middle of each wing (you can only see one wing in the picture,
-the other three are hidden behind it; one way to tell a butterfly from a
-moth is to remember that butterflies' wings close standing up, but
-nearly all moths' wings close down flat).
-
- [Illustration: THE BRIMSTONE BUTTERFLY
- After whom all "Butterflies" are probably called]
-
-It is almost certain that this insect was the first insect to be called
-"Butter"-fly because of its butter colour. When people began to see that
-there were other pretty flying things of much the same shape, though of
-quite different colours, they called them all Butterflies after this
-first one.
-
- [Illustration: THE RED ADMIRAL
- A Butterfly of many beautiful colours]
-
-So we speak, nowadays, without ever thinking of how funny it really is,
-of blue butterflies and white butterflies and black butterflies and
-purple butterflies, and red and yellow and green butterflies--all the
-colours of the rainbow, in fact.
-
- [Illustration: THE PURPLE EMPEROR
- The most gorgeous Butterfly in England, though not by any
- means the most beautiful]
-
-We would hardly talk of black butter or purple butter, would we?
-
-Some of you will perhaps wonder why the Brimstone Butterfly was the
-first to be noticed when there are so many others which are just as
-common.
-
-I think I can tell you.
-
-The Brimstone is almost always the first butterfly to be seen in the
-spring. Most butterflies die towards the autumn, and leave eggs behind,
-which hatch out in the following year, but the Brimstone, and a few
-others, sleep through the cold winter months and come out in the first
-warm days of spring and _then_ lay their eggs. The Brimstone comes out
-first of all, often quite early in February, and so he is the first
-butterfly that is likely to be noticed in the year.
-
- [Illustration: THE CLIFDEN BLUE]
-
-Perhaps his coming out at a time when cows began to give more milk, and
-butter began to be more plentiful, had something to do with his being
-called "butterfly," but I think that his colour had more to do with it.
-
- [Illustration: THE SWALLOW-TAIL BUTTERFLY
- Almost a paint-box in itself. It will give you blue, red,
- black and yellow. It is only found in the Cambridgeshire
- Fens]
-
-What lovely colours butterflies are! Have you ever fancied a butterfly
-paint-box? Let us think of a few common colours, and see how we could
-fill it. Suppose we wanted a blue? Why we should have a whole family of
-butterflies "The Blues" to choose from, and we should be just as well
-off for blacks and browns. For red we could take the beautiful scarlet
-ribbon of the Red Admiral. "Why is he called Admiral?" you ask. Well,
-Admiral is the same as Admirable, and his old name was Red Admirable.
-For purple we should have the Purple Emperor and the Purple
-Hair-streak--there is no purple quite so glorious as the purple that
-these have on their wings. For orange, the Orange-tip and the Clouded
-Yellow. For yellow, the Brimstone and several others. For white, of
-course, the Whites. Green might bother us a little, but there is one
-English butterfly, the Green Hair-streak, whose wings are a beautiful
-green underneath. As he is our only green butterfly I give you his
-picture. He is the upper butterfly in the first picture and, as you see,
-quite a little one.
-
- [Illustration: THE BLACK PEPPER MOTH
- Probably quite the blackest Moth we have. They vary very
- much in colouring though]
-
-We must not forget gold and silver. When I was young, I expected to find
-gold and silver in a really nice paint-box, and I do not suppose young
-people have changed much since then. Silver we should have no trouble
-about. There is a big family of butterflies called the Fritillaries, who
-have wonderful patches and ribbons of silver on their wings. I do not
-think you will find gold, except perhaps a little gold powder, on any
-English butterfly, but you will find it on several chrysalises. Indeed,
-Chrysalis means "the little golden one," and the name was given to these
-queer spiky things because gold patches were so often seen on them.
-
- [Illustration: THE SILVER WASHED FRITILLARY
- The silver is in broad bands on the under wings]
-
-I have seen little pictures made with the scales of butterflies' wings,
-with blue skies and green trees and everything. So you see a butterfly
-paint-box is not altogether a make-believe, though it is not an easy
-paint-box for young people to paint with.
-
-
-
-
- TWO WONDERFUL WASPS
- (JUNE)
-
-
-I expect you all must know the Common Yellow Wasps--the kind that come
-buzzing into the jam at tea-time; and I want to tell you this about
-them--that I don't think they ever really get angry if there is jam
-about and you leave them alone, though, when small people jump up and
-scream, and edge away from the table, and make bad shots at them with
-spoons, they get so frightened and bewildered, poor things, that they
-may sting somebody, because they feel they really must do something
-exciting.
-
- [Illustration: This is one of Spinipes' burrows opened up.
- There is an egg at the bottom on the left-hand side and a
- caterpillar on the right-hand side. The egg is hanging by a
- silk thread, but you can't see this]
-
-Perhaps some of you do _not_ know that there are seven different kinds
-of these Yellow Wasps to be met with in this country of ours, and I
-should be surprised to hear that any of you know _much_ about the two
-Black Wasps whose story I am going to tell you. I say "black," because
-they _look_ black, though both of them have yellow girdles on their
-bodies. I wish they had English names; for I am sure they both deserve
-them; and English names are much easier to remember than Latin ones.
-However, Latin names are the only ones I know for them, so we must make
-the best of it, and call one of them Spinipes (you must read this as if
-it were Spiny Peas) and the other Crabro.
-
-We will take Spinipes first.
-
-If you look at the picture on the opposite page, you will see what she
-is like, and, if you look at the picture in Spinipes the Sand-Wasp (p.
-151) you will see one of the clever things she does.
-
- [Illustration: This is a little picture of Spinipes
- bringing up a grub, which she is clasping beneath her body]
-
-She is building a little tube out of sand which is so delicate that the
-slightest touch from one of our own clumsy fingers will knock it down
-like a card-house, but it is strong enough for her to crawl inside; and
-she has to crawl inside very often, as you will see. I expect you will
-all want to know how she builds it, and what it is for. I will tell you
-how she builds it to begin with. You must know first that she has a pair
-of jaws which work quite differently from ours. Instead of moving up and
-down, they move across each other from side to side just like a pair of
-scissors.
-
- [Illustration: This is the Spinipes' grub feeding on the
- little green caterpillars]
-
-The first thing that Spinipes does is to work this little pair of
-scissors in the sand so as to make a little hole. I am showing you on
-page 148 a picture of her when she is just starting to dig. Every little
-pellet of sand she digs out she puts carefully round the outside of the
-hole, and presently she glues them all together. She carries the glue
-somewhere inside her, and brings it out when she wants it, Then she digs
-a little deeper and glues another layer of sand pellets on the top of
-the first one, and in a very short time she has dug a hole about two
-inches deep, and built a little tube round the top of it, which is made
-of the little sand-pellets she has brought out of the hole. Sometimes
-the tube stands straight up, but more often it bends about half-way and
-curves downwards. When she has finished it off, and is sure that the
-hole is deep enough, and the tube is long enough, she goes right down to
-the bottom and lays an egg, and she hangs the egg by a tiny thread
-(which she also makes herself, but I don't know how she does it) to the
-side of the hole a little above the bottom. You will be able to see this
-in the picture, but you must remember that in this and in some of the
-other pictures the sand has been cut away so that you can see exactly
-how the hole goes. Then, if it is a bright, sunny day, as it usually is
-when she begins digging, she flies away, and in about half an hour's
-time comes back carrying something clasped tight against her body. What
-do you think that is? It is a small green caterpillar. She stops a
-moment at the entrance of the tube, pushes the caterpillar down in front
-of her, and disappears after it. In a few seconds she is out again and
-off, and in another quarter of an hour or so she is back again with
-another caterpillar and so on, without ever tiring, through six or seven
-hours of a hot June or July day.
-
- [Illustration: This shows you the cocoon which Spinipes'
- grub makes for itself. I have opened it to show you the
- grub, and also the little partition in the shaft above the
- grub, which is the last thing Spinipes herself makes]
-
-I expect you will have guessed what the caterpillars are for. They are
-food for the wasp grub when it hatches out of the egg. Generally each
-hole has between twenty and thirty little caterpillars in it, and
-sometimes, when caterpillars are scarce, the Mother Wasp has to work
-hard for three or four days. If you dig into a hole yourself and look at
-the store of little caterpillars, you will see there is something the
-matter with them. They seem to be alive and yet they don't seem to be
-able to crawl. Wise men say that the wasp stings them just enough to
-make them drowsy so that they can't crawl out of the hole, and can't
-hurt the wasp grub by jostling up against it. It wouldn't do to kill
-them, because then they would go bad in the hole before the grub had
-time to eat them. This sounds rather cruel, but I don't think it is
-really, because it is quite certain that the caterpillars cannot feel as
-we should perhaps feel, and we may be quite sure that in the wonderful
-Nature World everything is arranged for the best, so that only the right
-number of wasp-grubs may be properly fed and grow up to do what it is
-their duty to do, and only the right number of small green caterpillars
-may grow up also.
-
- [Illustration: The little beetle that the caterpillars turn
- into. It is sitting on its own open-work cocoon, from which
- it has just hatched out. The picture makes it about twice
- its real size]
-
-You will wonder, I expect, why the Mother Wasp troubles to make the
-little tube above the hole. I think I can tell you one reason and you
-must remember this, because it was just by chance that I found it out.
-One hot morning in June I watched Mother Spinipes bringing seven
-caterpillars to her hole. Then a heavy thunderstorm came on, and the
-rain came down in buckets, and I had to run away for shelter. Late in
-the evening when it had cleared up a little, I thought I would like to
-see what had happened to the tube I had been watching, and I went back
-to the place and found that the rain had knocked it all to pieces. But I
-saw something much more interesting than this. The tube had been on the
-face of a sand-cliff, and in a crack close by there was an ants' nest. I
-found that the ants were running down the wasp's hole and bringing out
-the caterpillars as fast as they could (I saw them take six away), and
-taking them along the face of the cliff into their own stronghold. Now
-the tube that stands out from the sand somehow frightens the ants (I
-never saw an ant climb out along the tube and down inside it), and so I
-think that one of the reasons for the tube must be that it keeps away
-ants and creatures of that kind who crawl about on the face of the sand
-cliff and like eating caterpillars.
-
- [Illustration: BEFORE THE THUNDERSTORM]
-
- [Illustration: AFTER THE THUNDERSTORM]
-
-It was a long time before I found out what kind of creature the
-caterpillars stored by Spinipes would have turned into if they had not
-been caught. I thought that it would have been a small moth, but I was
-quite wrong. At different times I took several caterpillars away from
-the tubes, and tried to bring them up, but it was of no use, for they
-all died because they could not eat. One day, however, I happened to be
-sweeping with a butterfly-net in a field of lucerne--it is great fun
-sweeping, and you should try it, for you never know what you may get
-next--and I swept up what I knew at once was the self-same little green
-caterpillar that Spinipes stocked her larder with. She _always_ brought
-the same kind. Well, I got a good many of them by sweeping in the
-lucerne, and brought them up carefully, and, in due time, they spun
-little open-work cocoons on the lucerne leaves which I fed them with,
-and at last turned into small, brown, long-nosed beetles. I need not
-trouble you with the Latin names of these beetles, but I may tell you
-that they are a kind of weevil which is very common and very destructive
-to clover and plants of that kind. So, if we consider that every Mother
-Spinipes lays eight or nine eggs, and stocks eight or nine burrows each
-with about thirty destructive little caterpillars, we must allow that
-she is a very useful little wasp.
-
- [Illustration: This is a large picture of Crabro, about
- twice as big as she really is]
-
-But I am not sure that she is more useful to man than the other little
-wasp I have to tell of, the Crabro. I found out her usefulness quite by
-chance, and I expect you will like to hear how. To begin with, I must
-tell you that all the "Digger" Wasps, as some people call them, Spinipes
-and the Crabros and several other kinds, store their burrows with insect
-food for their grubs to feed on.
-
- [Illustration: This is Crabro looking out of her hole. The
- front of her face is covered with bright silver hair, so
- fine that it looks like a silver plate. The picture is
- twice her real size]
-
- [Illustration: This is how the cocoon looked when I had
- taken the sawdust away. The plug of sawdust above it leads
- into the round hole in the wood]
-
-But each one has her own particular idea as to what is the _best_ food.
-One will use nothing but little spiders, another nothing but little
-flies, another, like Spinipes, nothing but little beetle grubs. And the
-queer part is that they seldom seem to make any mistake as to the kind
-of food they want. It will be _one_ kind of spider, and _one_ kind of
-fly, and _one_ kind of beetle-grub. If there are ever more than one
-kind, they are always very near relations, and, I suppose, taste very
-much alike.
-
- [Illustration: At the bottom of the picture you will see
- one of Crabro's stores of blue-bottles, and if you look
- carefully you will see one of the fly's wings stretching
- out of it]
-
-Now Crabro's store consists of really _large_ flies, blue-bottles, and
-green-bottles--I expect most of you know the beautiful shiny
-green-bottle fly whose proper name is Caesar--and how little Crabro
-manages to overcome and carry off large bottle-flies who are several
-times her own size and several times her own weight, I cannot tell. But
-I have found out for certain that she does so, and the pictures will
-show you how I found out.
-
- [Illustration: This is what the piece of elm-bough looked
- like. You will be able to see the little tunnels, and the
- stores of blue-bottles, which are black-looking, and the
- plugs of sawdust, in which the pupa cases of the wasp-grubs
- are hidden. You can see one pupa about half way up]
-
-Last autumn a dangerous bough had to be taken down from the top of a
-high elm-tree in my garden. It was perhaps sixty feet above the ground
-and it came down with a crash and broke up into little pieces. I picked
-up one of these tubes and galleries, which I knew were insects' work.
-But there was something much more exciting than this. A number of the
-galleries had blind ends to them, and at the bottom of these were masses
-of dead blue-bottles, tightly packed, which rested on small pillows of
-sawdust, and had long plugs of sawdust above them.
-
-I opened one of the long sawdust plugs and found, as I half expected to
-find, that at the end of it next to the blue-bottles, was a small brown
-papery cocoon, and that inside the cocoon was a wasp grub. I need hardly
-tell you that I collected a lot of the wood, and kept it carefully
-through the winter, and tried to make the little grubs as much at home
-as if they had stayed up in their tree. To do this I had to keep the
-wood in moist and rather dark surroundings. Then when the spring came
-round I sometimes put the wood in the sunshine, when it was not too hot,
-and in the first week in June I was rewarded for my trouble, for the
-little wasps hatched out in dozens, and so I was able to find out what
-they were.
-
- [Illustration: This is one of the cocoons of Crabro in the
- elm-bough. Crabro is just going to hatch out. You can see
- the little black hole where she has started gnawing]
-
-Look up to the top of the trees some warm summer day, and think of the
-blue-bottle hunt which may be going on above us, and of the wonderful
-little hunter, Crabro.
-
-
-
-
- SPINIPES THE SAND-WASP
- (MIDSUMMER DAY)
-
- AUTHOR'S NOTE
-
- [Illustration]
-
-This insect-tale is based on observations of fact extending over several
-summers. It may interest some of my readers to know the scientific names
-of the chief characters mentioned. I do not think that any of them have
-popular names. The heroine is the solitary Sand-Wasp _Odynerus
-Spinipes_, a blacker and somewhat smaller insect than the familiar
-yellow Wasps of Town and Garden. The Red King and the Black Queen are
-the male and female of a solitary Bumble Bee, _Anthophora Pilipes_. The
-Mistress of the Robes is a "Cuckoo" Bee, _Melecta armata_, which attends
-on Anthophora, and lays its eggs in the cells made by Anthophora for her
-own eggs. The grubs of both feed on the honey and pollen which
-_Anthophora_ alone has the trouble of procuring. _O. Spinipes_ has
-several cuckoos, the most officious being the jewel flies, _Chrysis
-ignita_ and _Chrysis bidentata_, whose grubs, I fancy, eat the grub of
-Spinipes, as well as the food stored up for it. The Ophion is a common
-Ichneumon fly, and the beetle-grubs belong to a very common and
-destructive weevil, _Hypera variabilis_.
-
-
-The Sand Cliff splits the old gravel-pit in two, and, jutting southward,
-fronts the mid-day sun. The cuttings driven east and west of it have
-long been clothed with furze and briar and nettle. Rank grass conceals
-the cart-track round its base, and, on its summit, a thin, root-bound
-soil gives foothold to a straggling hedge of privet.
-
- [Illustration: THE SAND CLIFF SPLITS THE OLD GRAVEL-PIT IN TWO]
-
-Man, needing gravel only, scorned the sand; and, as he turned his back
-on it, came Nature, gently mothering; and brought it warmth, and light,
-and life.
-
-First the wild Bees, Red Kings, Black Queens, fringe-footed,
-shaggy-coated. These made a chambered palace of the cliff, and peopled
-it within a summer. With them came Lords-in-Waiting and their Ladies, in
-liveries of black velvet, ermine-faced; and, after these, a fluttering
-gauze-winged host--jewel-flies ablaze with green and blue and crimson,
-trim slender-waisted digger-wasps, long-streamered swart ichneumons.
-And, last of all, came Spinipes herself.
-
-Straight from the blue she dropped on May's last morning, swerved
-through the hum and racket of the Bees, poised with her smoke-grey wings
-a-whir, and lighted softly on the centre ledge, her ebony body mirroring
-the sun, her five gold girdles blazing.
-
- [Illustration: FIRST THE WILD BEES, RED KINGS, BLACK QUEENS]
-
-Down dropped a Red King at her side. He stared at her right royally, and
-kept right royal silence, yet there was kindness in his yellow face, and
-kindness in the purr of his departure.
-
-Down dropped a Black Queen in his place, and danced and hummed
-about her, and measured her slim-waistedness, and buzzed her
-disapproval.--"What is it?" asked she snappishly. "Why does it come in
-this get-up? Where has it left its furs?"
-
- [Illustration: DOWN DROPPED A RED KING AT HER SIDE. HE
- STARED AT HER RIGHT ROYALLY]
-
-"It never had furs," said a voice behind her. It was her Mistress of the
-Robes.
-
-"I know the family, Ma'am. Queer clothes, of course. But artists, Ma'am,
-artists to the toe-tips."
-
-"Artists in what?" said the Black Queen.
-
-"In Sand, Ma'am, in Sand. See, she's starting now."
-
-"That's hive-bee's work," said the Black Queen contemptuously.
-
-"The art comes at the finish, Ma'am----"
-
- [Illustration: IN SAND, MA'AM, IN SAND. SEE, SHE'S
- STARTING NOW]
-
-"Well, call me when it comes," said the Black Queen, "and keep her off
-the nurseries, and clean that eleventh cell of mine, and wait till I
-come back. She soared up skywards, fussily, cleared the cliff's head,
-circled three times about, and set a straight course south.
-
-"Good riddance!" said the Mistress of the Robes.
-
-"They're like that everywhere," said Spinipes. "What are her nurseries
-to me? Black Queens and black sand go together. Now this is red sand. I
-feel the grip and bind of it."
-
-She was quite right. The ledge was rain-washed silt. Sunshine had
-bleached the outer crust of it, but, under this, its substance was
-brick-red--fine ground stuff too, damp, clingy, easily tunnelled, and
-easily smarmed into a hold-fast mortar.
-
-"In that case," said the Mistress of the Robes, "I may as well be going."
-
-Slowly she floated off the ledge, yet kept her face towards it. Slowly
-she tacked from side to side, in dipping, widening sweeps. Slowly she
-passed the cliff's east edge, and disappeared.
-
-_Then_ Spinipes commenced to dig in earnest.
-
- [Illustration: "WELL, CALL ME WHEN IT COMES," SAID THE
- BLACK QUEEN]
-
-Her scissor-jaws worked viciously, carved four-square pellets from the
-sun-baked crust, gripped them and flung them backwards. As she engaged
-the softer soil, she added feverish foot-work, and scraped, and rasped,
-and scrabbled it, and kicked it back in dust-clouds. Her head was
-quickly buried, next her waist, and, presently, she disappeared
-completely.
-
-But not for long.
-
-She backed up to the surface, dragging a sand-load underneath her body.
-She shook this clear, and, without resting, dived afresh. Ten loads in
-all she raised, and each one meant a longer spell below. For she had
-more to do than dig. From end to end her shaft must needs be glazed--and
-this meant patient mouth-work, deft steadying touches as the mortar set,
-and skill to keep her tube's round symmetry, and guide it in a gentle
-curve to end in quiet darkness. Three inches down she sank, and, at the
-bottom, drove a slant, and hollowed out a store-room.
-
-With this the first stage ended. She left her shaft, and, poising in
-mid-air, made survey of the ledge. To right she swerved, to left again,
-outwards and back, upwards and down, until its bearings east and west,
-from sky above, and earth below, were rooted in her memory.
-
- [Illustration: _THEN_ SPINIPES COMMENCED TO DIG IN
- EARNEST]
-
-So far, so good--her morning's work was done, the picture of it fixed
-into her mind. Upwards she soared until the receding cliff shrunk to a
-splotch of brown. Once more she took her bearings and was satisfied, set
-her course east, and, with a dropping arrow's flight, came to the
-hill-top coppice. She landed on the bramble hedge which skirts its
-western clearing.
-
-"Good hunting, sister!" said the Ophion Fly. She sat on a high
-briar-leaf, her rainbow wings uplifted.
-
-"It's hardly time for that," said Spinipes. "To-morrow, p'raps. To-day I
-feed myself."
-
-"There's lucerne on the slope," the Ophion said, "and something
-underneath you."
-
-There was a snap and flicker in the grass, and presently appeared a
-pygmy beetle, long-snouted, dusty-coated, trailing its slow legs wearily.
-
-"D'you _see_ it?" said the Ophion Fly.
-
-"I see it, but what of it?"
-
-"It means good hunting, sister. Green grubs, black-headed, fatted. Too
-small for me, but just the size for you. You'll find them in the
-lucerne."
-
-"Thank you," said Spinipes, but she was half across the field, a
-dancing, filmy wisp of pink, wind-borne.
-
-A meal, and then to work, thought Spinipes. It must be done by sunset.
-It must. It must.
-
-From spray to spray she flitted. Flower after flower she robbed of its
-pale nectar. Bud after bud she nibbled. At last she found the food she
-sought, and, with her strength renewed, took flight. Upwards she soared;
-three times she circled round; then in a straight, unbroken course,
-whizzed to her shaft. Her pace was scarcely slackened as she entered.
-Her wings closed lengthways on her back, and, in a moment, she was at
-the bottom.
-
-Something was there before her.
-
- [Illustration: "GOOD HUNTING, SISTER!" SAID THE OPHION
- FLY]
-
-Something six legged, which kicked and squirmed and writhed. Something
-which coiled to a hard, slippery ball, and rolled away from capture.
-
-There was no space for it to pass, and yet there seemed no holding it.
-At last she pinned it with her feet, and, backing, dragged it upwards to
-the light. It was a radiant jewel fly, a squat, short-waisted, dumpy
-thing made glorious by its colour. Gems sparkled on it head to tail,
-sapphire and ruby, emerald and topaz, and, as it struggled, fire of gold
-blazed and died down upon its jerking body. Instinctively she shook and
-worried it. Instinctively she flung it down the slope. Head over tail,
-tight-clenched, it spun, nor opened till it reached the grass below.
-Here it snapped out to shape again, took instant wing, and, with a
-glancing flight, regained the ledge.
-
-"An excellent shaft, Madam; quite excellent. No doubt you made it for a
-special purpose. Now I----"
-
-"Listen to me," said Spinipes, "and mark my every word. If you come near
-that shaft again--if you so much as touch it with your feet, I'll sting
-your prying life out."
-
-She charged at it full swing and chased it off the ledge.
-
-"An area sneak!" she muttered, as she dropt underground once more--"and
-over-dressed at that."
-
- [Illustration: THE LAST TO CEASE FROM PLAY WAS THE
- ROSE-CHAFER]
-
-Below the walls showed signs of the encounter--it took ten minutes to
-repair their glazing. When this was done, she crept back to the
-entrance. It was high noon. A shimmery haze rose from the heated sand.
-The hum of work died fitfully away, as, one by one, the homing bees
-sought shade. The digger-wasps dived deep into their holes; the hunting
-spiders hid themselves. These were the last to cease from work; the last
-to cease from play was the rose-chafer.
-
-Him the fierce blaze of heat impelled to bursts of clumsy flight. Across
-the pit and back again, and up and down the surface of the cliff, he
-whirred and swung at random. Soon even he grew listless, and crept
-within the shelter of the privet.
-
-The change came with a catspaw breeze, which rippled from the valley,
-and, in its quiet passing, fanned the cliff.
-
-It brought back life and energy.
-
-Out flew the bees, a jostling, buzzing throng of them, see-sawing wildly
-up and down, swinging, reversing, wheeling. At length they towered and
-broke to work. Out crept the hunting spiders, zebra-coated; the
-fluttering, dancing, digger-wasps; the lightning-footed ants. Out, last
-of all, came Spinipes herself.
-
- [Illustration: OUT FLEW THE BEES]
-
-Her first care was her toilet. She combed her long antennæ out and
-nibbled at each foot. A circling flight to stretch her wings ended where
-it had started; and, in a moment, she had plunged below. Two minutes she
-stayed underground, then came up slowly backwards. Between her jaws was
-a clean-cut sand pellet. She placed it on the rim of the shaft opening,
-and, with deft touches from her lips, cemented it in station. She danced
-about it joyously, with fluttery wings, with airy, buoyant feet,
-moistened it here, kneaded it there. Once more she dived and dragged a
-second pellet up, and fixed this too upon the rim. So diving, digging,
-fixing, shaping, she raised a low ring-parapet.
-
-Hour after hour she toiled, tier after tier she added, gluing each
-pellet firmly to the last, yet leaving open space between each junction.
-So rose a filagree tube of sand, so fragile that a touch would crumble
-it; so strong that it would bear four times her weight. Before a shadow
-reached the cliff, it was a half-inch high. But shadows meant an end to
-the day's work, and Spinipes crept down below and slept.
-
- [Illustration: HOUR AFTER HOUR SHE TOILED]
-
-The morning sun had shone four hours before she stirred. She peered out
-round-eyed from her tower, and, twisting on the rim of it, hung for a
-while head-downwards. A flash of green and crimson light, and something
-settled under her. It was the Jewel Fly again.
-
-"Fine progress, Madam, and a first-rate tower. I never saw a better."
-
-No word said Spinipes, but straightway launched, and flew at her.
-
-"Out, cuckoo-sneak!" she screamed. "Out! or I sting!"
-
-The Jewel Fly dodged like a gnat, and vanished round the corner.
-
-She certainly meant mischief.
-
-The lowest chamber of the shaft now held a precious thing--a
-spindle-shaped gold egg, slung to the side-wall by a silken thread. Back
-darted Spinipes to look at it; and test the fine-spun sling again; and
-fuss with it; and feel that it was hers.
-
- [Illustration: THE LOWEST CHAMBER OF THE SHAFT NOW HELD
- A PRECIOUS THING]
-
-Then up to her look-out once more. This time she dropped down to the
-sand and sunned herself contentedly.
-
-The Bees had long been working. Forward and back they passed
-unceasingly, now and again one towered, now and again one settled; but
-never did their labour-song, a droning, buzzing, humming chanty, weaken
-or gather strength. The Jewel Fly had vanished altogether, yet Spinipes
-still seemed to fear her coming. A full half hour she stayed on guard,
-and spent the time in adding to her tower, and rounding off its
-entrance, which, of its own weight, took a gentle down-curve. Then,
-after one last gaze upon her egg, she flew afield.
-
-"Good hunting, sister!" said the Ophion Fly. She sat on the same leaf as
-yesterday.
-
-"I want them now," said Spinipes.
-
-"The're thousands of them, thousands," said the fly, "and most of them
-quite fat."
-
- [Illustration: IT WAS A FLABBY, GREEN, BLACK-HEADED
- GRUB]
-
-But Spinipes was too engrossed to hear her. Already, swayed by instinct
-she was hunting, hunting an unknown quarry in the lucerne. From plant to
-plant, from leaf to leaf, she fluttered. Now she dropped down to earth,
-and ran this way and that in the green twilight tangle. Now she sped
-nimble-footed up a stalk. Now she took flight and skimmed above the
-leaves.
-
-At last she paused, her every muscle trembling, and stared at what
-confronted her.
-
-It was a flabby, green, black-headed grub, fixed slug-like on its
-food-plant. A trail of skeleton tracery marked where its jaws had
-passed, and, as it reached the border of its leaf it swung its head, and
-starting near midrib, gnawed yet another ribbon-strip of green.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-It ceased to feed as Spinipes appeared, and rested motionless, until her
-weight made its leaf-platform shiver. Then it dropped silently to earth.
-But Spinipes reached earth almost as fast, and, quartering every inch of
-ground, found it and gripped it tightly. It struggled feebly as she
-pinned it down, and, as she stung it, shuddered. The sting was measured
-to the millionth part. It robbed the grub of sentient life, yet left it
-living. So Nature had enjoined. For every infant Spinipes, a score of
-live green grubs. Robbed of full life, lest struggling they should harm
-the egg; forbidden death, lest dying they should taint the shaft; lulled
-to long sleep in mercy. Of Nature's ordinance the grub knew nothing--and
-Spinipes knew nothing. Her task was to make store of food against the
-time when her gold egg should hatch. Instinctively she knew the grub was
-food: instinctively she paralysed its being: instinctively she laboured
-to transport it.
-
-Her jaws were fastened tight behind its head. Slowly she dragged it up a
-stalk until blue sky alone was over her. Then, loosing her mouth-grip of
-it, and clasping it with all six legs, she soared on high; one long
-unbroken down-glide brought her to her tower. An instant's pause to
-shift her grip, and she had pushed the grub within the entrance. Keeping
-a foot-hold on it, she eased it gently downwards, until it lay beneath
-her egg. She turned it over on its back and propped it to the side wall,
-caressed her egg, and mounted to the light again.
-
-Back to the lucerne field she flew, and, in ten minutes, reappeared, a
-second grub beneath her.
-
-This, too, she propped up carefully, and so she worked throughout the
-day, hunting, benumbing, storing. Twelve grubs in all she brought. All
-twelve she packed into a single pile. A few made feeble movements, and
-these, for prudence' sake, she stung afresh.
-
-She passed the night contentedly, for it had been good hunting.
-
- [Illustration: An instant's pause to shift her grip, and
- she had pushed the grub within the entrance.]
-
- [Illustration: "Take that--and that--and that," said
- Spinipes, and drove her sharp sting home.]
-
- [Illustration: TWELVE GRUBS IN ALL SHE BROUGHT]
-
-The morrow's sky was wind-swept. Across it scurried wisps of grey with
-torn and fretted edges. These raced to catch each other, and fused in
-rounded velvet clouds. Mass joined to mass, and, surging slowly upwards,
-veiled the sun. Southwards, where earth met sky, a fine-drawn streak of
-blue endured, while, here and there, a rent across the veil gave passage
-to a radiant fan-spread beam. Once only did such radiance reach the
-cliff. It brought a treacherous message. Out swarmed the bees to snatch
-the chance of work, and out, with like intent, came Spinipes. Straight
-to her hunting-ground she flew, but, even as she reached it, came the
-rain.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-For two hours she was weather-bound. At last a watery gleam of light,
-mirrored in every dripping leaf, enticed her from her shelter. Homeward
-she sped, and, reaching home, found havoc. Her tower was gone--the
-rain had razed it utterly--but there was worse mishap than this.
-Swift-scurrying on the surface of the sand were gangs of ants, and every
-gang was busy with a grub, one of _her_ grubs. They pulled and pushed
-and shouted to each other, and worked their burdens upward to the cleft
-which marked their city's entrance. She poised aghast, as with a mocking
-spit at her, the gaping shaft disgorged another grub. Six sturdy ants
-came with it, and, ranging up in order, (a pair to tug, a pair to push,
-a pair to guide,) commenced their long ascent.
-
-The grubs might be replaced in time--what of her precious egg? Downwards
-she tumbled headlong. Three grubs, the lowest of the pile, were left;
-her egg-- She had been in the nick of time. Her egg was there, nay more,
-it was uninjured. Her mother instinct told her this as, with quick
-trembling passes, she felt the hang and weight of it. Her mother
-instinct swung her round, as down the shaft she heard a scraping
-footfall. Even as she turned, an ant's black face peered round the lower
-bend.
-
-"Out thief!" she cried. "Assassin! Bandit! Robber!"
-
-The ant retreated hurriedly, but all that night she sat at the shaft's
-mouth, and barred the way below with her own body.
-
-Next day the weather mended--a blaze of sun from an unclouded sky, and,
-on the sand-cliff, ecstasy of life.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Hard work in store for Spinipes! Three hours she spent in raising a
-fresh tower, five hours in reprovisioning her burrow. But she no longer
-worked alone. For others of her race had found the cliff, and other
-towers, twin to her own, were rising from the sand-ledge. Between them
-pygmy digger wasps dug shafts to match their bodies, and trident-tailed
-ichneumons sailed about them, and sneaking, prying, jewel flies, here,
-there, and everywhere on mischief bent.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-She _caught_ her old acquaintance, caught her in the act, and dragged
-her out, and stung her as was promised.
-
-"I looked inside, that's all--that's really all," whimpered the culprit
-as she clutched the rim.
-
-"Take that--and that--and that," said Spinipes, and drove her sharp
-sting home. But jewel flies are toughened folk, and this one, flung
-aside at last, was in full flight, and merry as a grig, within a minute
-of her punishment.
-
-Daily the work grew harder. It took more time to find the grubs, since
-other wasps were hunting, and soon the increasing bulk of them taxed her
-full powers of flight. Once, as she neared the ledge, she dropped her
-burden. It lay where it had fallen till it died, for neither she nor
-other of her kind had wit to forge, or mend, a link in instincts broken
-chain. Once she found strange additions to her store. A human hand had
-robbed a neighbouring shaft and, with well-meant intention, sought to
-help her. Vain fancy! Here the self-same chain (to hunt--to catch--to
-bring--to store) was, end for end, reversed. The alien grubs were, one
-by one, dragged forth, and, one by one, flung headlong.
-
- [Illustration: SHE SANK FIVE OTHER CURVING SHAFTS AND BUILT
- FIVE TOWERS TO GUARD THEM]
-
-Within a week the burrow held full store, a stack of five-and-twenty
-grubs piled up to meet the egg. This last was at the hatching-point. The
-silken cord, by which it hung, had lengthened with its growth, and each
-hour found it closer to its food. All had gone well, and Spinipes' last
-task, to seal the shaft with a partition-wall, was soon accomplished.
-Nor did she ever see that egg again. In time the tower itself fell in--I
-fancy that she helped it, and in its falling, smothered the main
-entrance.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-She sank five other curving shafts--each held an egg--and built five
-towers to guard them. She made five further stores of grubs; and then,
-her life-work ended, she crept into a cleft and died.
-
-What of the eggs? you ask. They hatched to golden yellow grubs, which
-fattened on the food stores, and when, at length, their food was all
-consumed, they spun them silken coverlets, and changed from grubs to
-sleeping nymphs. They slept through autumn's dreariness, through
-winter's cold, through spring's soft showers, and, when at length the
-warmth of summer beckoned, they burst their bonds, and, working through
-the sand, flew forth, as those before them had flown forth. So
-recommenced the cycle. An æon back it was the same. An æon hence--who
-knows?
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- PICTURES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS
- (JULY)
-
-
- [Illustration: THE MAGPIE MOTH]
-
-I have already told you of the beautiful colours to be found on
-butterflies' wings, and how people have actually used a butterfly
-paintbox to make pictures with. Now I am going to show you some
-butterflies and moths (quite common ones all of them) which have queer
-little pictures on their wings ready made--real pictures I mean, faces
-and animals and things like that.
-
-You may find it, at first, a little hard to see them, for they are
-puzzle pictures, like those you get in crackers, but once you have found
-the face, or whatever it may be, you won't be able to help seeing it.
-
-I will start you with quite an easy one. Some of you, I expect, have
-noticed how often living creatures have a pattern on them like an open
-eye. This is called an "eye-marking," and is of course quite a different
-thing from the eye which is used for seeing with. Nearly all our
-butterflies have an eye-marking somewhere on their wings, and we find it
-in many other creatures besides butterflies. In birds, for instance (you
-will remember the peacock at once), and fish (next time you pass a big
-fishmonger's look out for a John Dory, he has a beauty) and lizards and
-snakes and frogs and things like that. It is not often seen on animals,
-though a leopard's or a jaguar's spots are something very like it.
-
-If you look at the picture of the Emperor Moth you will see that there
-is a very nicely drawn eye on each of his upper wings (his real eyes are
-quite hidden by his little fur cape); and if you look at the caterpillar
-of the Elephant hawk-moth long enough, I am sure you will think that he
-is looking back at you, and that he does not like the look of you much.
-
- [Illustration: THE EMPEROR MOTH]
-
-Here, again, it is not his eyes that you see, but his eye-markings. In
-the first picture they are just where you would expect eyes to be, and I
-must explain to you why. He is called the "Elephant" caterpillar because
-the head-end of him ("head-end" sounds rather queer; but I think that if
-one may say "tail-end" one may say "head-end") tapers off very quickly
-from his fat body, and when he swings this end of him, as he often does,
-it looks like an elephant's trunk. You will see what I mean in the
-second picture.
-
- [Illustration: THE ELEPHANT HAWK MOTH'S CATERPILLAR
- SHOWING HIS EYE-MARKINGS]
-
-Now when he is frightened or angry, he tucks his head in like a
-telescope close up to the eye-markings, and then these look as if they
-are really eyes.
-
-Some people think, and they may be quite right, that these eye-markings
-frighten off birds and lizards and things like that, who would soon eat
-the caterpillar if they did not think that his eye-markings were really
-eyes, and that they must have a big body behind them.
-
-You remember the eyes as big as tea-cups in "The Little Tin Soldier"? If
-you have not read that, read it as quickly as you can.
-
-Eye-markings are very easy to see, and I am sure that you will be able
-to find four of them on the wings of the Peacock Butterfly.
-
- [Illustration: THE ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH'S CATERPILLAR,
- SHOWING HIS TRUNK]
-
-Some people think that these frighten off creatures who might eat him,
-just like those on the Elephant Hawk caterpillar, and some people think
-just the opposite--that the eye-markings are so clear a mark that the
-butterfly's enemies will bite at _them_, and so get a mouthful of
-butterfly's wing, instead of the butterfly himself; which is, of course,
-all for the good of the butterfly. I don't think we can be quite sure
-that either of these reasons is true, but we may be certain that if the
-eye-markings were not somehow useful to the butterfly they would not be
-there.
-
- [Illustration: THE PEACOCK BUTTERFLY]
-
-The upper eye-markings on the Peacock have nothing particularly curious
-about them, but those on the under-wings each form a clear man's face
-with a big moustache, whiskers, and a bald forehead. If you hold the
-paper a little way off, you will see it clearly. It is something like
-Mr. Balfour.
-
-This is a full-face picture, but in the other moths, the Mother Shipton
-and the Magpie, you will find side-face pictures. The Mother Shipton
-takes its name from having the face of an old witch on each of its upper
-wings. I will leave you to puzzle this out for yourselves, but I will
-give you the hint that the old witch has a hooked nose and a pointed
-chin.
-
-The Magpie Moth has the side face of rather an ugly boy with a button of
-a nose and his mouth wide open. This is made up by the markings of each
-pair of wings taken together, and can only be seen when the wings are in
-a certain position. I will give you a hint here, too, which will help
-you. The seventh spot on the border of the upper wing, counting
-downwards, is the boy's eye; and he has a fine head of hair.
-
- [Illustration: THE MOTHER SHIPTON MOTH]
-
-Nearly all butterflies and moths have some kind of picture on their
-wings, and I think that it is nicer looking for these than looking for
-pictures in the fire, because, when once you have found a butterfly
-picture, you may be sure of finding it again, and showing it to other
-people.
-
-
-
-
- A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE
- (AUGUST)
-
-
-I am going to talk about two animals this time--one a very big one and
-one a very small one. I am showing you two pictures of the small one and
-two of some cousins of his. He is quite the wee-est beastie in this
-country of ours, and nearly the wee-est beastie in all the world. He is
-called the Pygmy Shrewmouse, and his name, as you see it printed, is
-just about as long as his soft, velvet body.
-
-I wonder how many of you know which is the _largest_ of our British
-animals? If you guess quickly you are sure to guess wrong, and so I will
-tell you, and then there will be no need to put you right. It is the
-Blue Whale.
-
-Very few of us have ever seen a Blue Whale, or, indeed, have ever had
-the chance; but he comes to our northern coasts almost every summer, and
-so, as he is met with in British seas, he is quite rightly called a
-British animal.
-
-He does not often swim close inshore, for, if he does, he is likely to
-be caught by the tide, and left high and dry like a jelly-fish, which,
-indeed, has more than once happened.
-
-The Blue Whales which come to this country are between seventy and
-eighty feet long (there is really no room to give you a picture of one)
-and weigh between a hundred and fifty and two hundred tons. The Pygmy
-Shrewmouse, tail and all, is less than three inches long and weighs
-about a tenth of an ounce. Now I know that measurements are difficult
-things for young folks to understand, so I will try to make you see the
-difference between these two animals of ours in a different way. I
-expect we all know what a lawn-tennis court looks like. Two Blue Whales
-would just fill a lawn-tennis court, but if we wanted to fill a
-lawn-tennis court with Pygmy Shrewmice, we should want five-hundred
-thousand of them, and if we could lift a Blue Whale on an enormous pair
-of scales, and tried to balance him with Pygmy Shrewmice, we should
-want--how many do you think? We should want more than _seventy millions_
-of them.
-
- [Illustration: THE COMMON SHREWMOUSE, WHO IS HALF AS
- BIG AGAIN AS THE PYGMY]
-
-It is wonderful to think that the wee Pygmy and the huge Whale should
-belong to the same Class of creatures. But it is so. Nearly all the
-bones in the Pygmy (some are scarcely thicker than a hair) can be
-matched by the same sort of bones in the Blue Whale. If the Blue Whale
-were a fish (and he certainly looks like one) his bones would be quite
-different and quite differently arranged, and from this we know that the
-Whale is not a fish like a Shark, but an animal like a Seal, or a Pygmy
-Shrewmouse or one of ourselves.
-
-Now we must look at the pictures. You will see at once what a long nose
-the Pygmy has got. This nose is very useful to him, for much of his food
-is tiny insects, and he pokes his nose into tiny holes after them.
-
-You can't see his teeth in the pictures, which is a pity, for they are
-very curious teeth, and the front ones, instead of pointing up and down
-like ours do, point outwards rather, and come together like a pair of
-tweezers. This helps him to catch insects too, and to pull little snails
-out of their shells.
-
-I don't think his teeth are strong enough to crack snail shells, but his
-dark-brown cousin, the Common Shrewmouse (his picture is on page 181),
-cracks snail shells quite easily, and so does his black cousin, the
-Water Shrewmouse.
-
- [Illustration: THE WATER SHREWMOUSE, WHO IS NEARLY HALF
- AS BIG AGAIN AS THE COMMON SHREWMOUSE]
-
-What does the great Blue Whale eat, you ask? I expect you will be
-surprised to hear that he eats much the same kind of things as the
-Pygmy--small slug-like creatures, scarcely an inch long, which swarm in
-parts of the sea. Of course he eats barrelfuls at once.
-
-He catches them by a wonderful arrangement in his mouth, which is made
-of what we call whalebone. It is something like the gratings across
-drain-pipes, which let the water through but stop everything else, and
-he can lift it up or drop it down as he pleases. When he is hungry, he
-takes a huge mouthful of sea-water and lets it out again through this
-whalebone grating. All the small slug-like things which are swimming in
-the water are trapped, and, when he has got most of the water out of his
-mouth, he swallows them.
-
- [Illustration: THE PYGMY SHREWMOUSE His fur has a
- beautiful purple bloom, like that on a yellow plum; and is
- so fine that it often shows mother-of-pearl colours]
-
-I don't think that the Whale can have much trouble about getting his
-dinner; all he has to do is to find the right piece of sea and then open
-his mouth; but the Pygmy, I think, has to work very hard, as he has to
-catch everything separately, and he is such a delicate little creature
-that he is seldom about unless the weather is warm and fine.
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS HOW THE PYGMY COILS HIMSELF UP
- TO SLEEP]
-
-Then he has to make up for the hungry time when bad weather has kept him
-in his hole.
-
-In the autumn one often finds dead shrewmice lying on the paths. Nobody
-quite knows why they die in the autumn, but I think it is because only a
-few of them, if any, are strong enough to stand cold and wet and hunger
-all at once. The rest die just like the leaves die.
-
-You must not think a dead Shrewmouse is like a live one to look at, for
-he is quite different. When dead, the poor little beastie lies stretched
-out straight, but when he is alive he is all bunched up together and
-runs about like a little fur ball on legs.
-
-
-
-
- IN WEASEL WOOD
- (LAMMAS DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Again the Fox Cub was puzzled. His muzzle wrinkled dubiously, his ears
-twitched and puckered, he barked (a new accomplishment), he mewed (a
-newer habit still), and then, since sound proved futile, he sank from
-his hindquarters forward slowly, grounded his nose between his paws and
-stared.
-
-This was the queerest happening of all. Queerer than the briar's queer
-flutter; and the shower of pink petals from it; and the glint of savage
-little eyes half-way up it; and the savage little chestnut face behind
-them. Queerer than the scream from the sky; and the rotten elm-branch
-dancing bough to bough; and cannoning against the trunk; and shattering
-at his feet. Queerer than the swish through the nettlebed--swish of a
-purple snaking shadow, which might have been mere bird, had the trail of
-it been clumsier, or its ripple more fretful.
-
- [Illustration: AGAIN THE FOX CUB WAS PUZZLED]
-
-Birds he had known since teething. Mother had brought them often; Father
-less often--scraggy, thin-necked, towsled things, yet mostly of fine
-flavour; finer than rabbits certainly (except quite baby rabbits);
-finer, too, than frogs; or lizards; or mice; or snails; or any of the
-myriad crawl-by-nights on which young teeth gain confidence.
-
-The Fox Cub stared round-eyed towards the bracken. It certainly was
-moving--moving in waves which spent themselves abruptly, moving in spins
-and eddies. Now and again great swathes of it sank downward.
-
-The Fox Cub froze to stone. His muzzle hardened; his ears drooped flat;
-only his tail (his brush was yet to come) twitched half in interest,
-half in apprehension.
-
-The bracken started midway down the slope, in straggling, wayward
-patches. These quickly joined in an unbroken mass, and, on the level
-ground, gained full luxuriance. A cart-track twisted through them, half
-of it clear to eyes above, half intercepted.
-
-Beyond, the ground crept up once more--bracken gave place to bramble,
-bramble to coppice, coppice to the sky.
-
-The Fox Cub's eyes missed nothing.
-
-Movement above he saw--the brown owl changing station. Movement upon
-mid-slope--the dormouse in the brambles. Movement upon the
-cart-track--the shrewmouse worrying snails. But these were mere
-diversions--their interest passed. The bracken furnished a besetting
-problem--movement inexplicable, sound inexplicable--long-drawn, wheezy
-breathings, snorts of exertion, sighs of content. There was scent also,
-heavy musted scent, which came in whiffs and dangled at his nose.
-
-But for this scent he must have smelt the Stoat. The Stoat came dancing
-up the wind, passed by to right of him, and swung about. He held himself
-with an air, his body arched, one broad white pad uplifted, his tail
-curved decorously. From where he lay, the Fox Cub took his measure, then
-slowly reared himself and yawned. He, too, had teeth to show.
-
-The Stoat's black tail twitched side to side. He met the challenge
-squarely. The Fox Cub sank full length again. The Stoat tiptoed towards
-him, and, stretching full-neck forward, nibbled at his fur. So was their
-peace established.
-
-"Badger," whispered the Stoat, and danced from point to point excitedly,
-"Badger, grub-grub-grubbing."
-
- [Illustration: HE SANK FROM HIS HINDQUARTERS FORWARD
- SLOWLY, GROUNDED HIS NOSE BETWEEN HIS PAWS AND STARED]
-
-A stunted patch of bracken burst apart, and from its cover lurched a
-broad grey back.
-
-"He scents you," said the Stoat.
-
-The Fox Cub still lay motionless. It was the broadest back he yet had
-seen.
-
-"Should one run?" he whispered. This spelt sheer ignorance of the woods.
-
-"Run?" said the Stoat. "Whoever ran from Badger but a rabbit? Badger is
-all benevolence. Badger is King. We run towards him."
-
-"Who are _We_?" said the Fox Cub.
-
-"_We?_" said the Stoat. "Why, Marten, Polecat, Stoat, and Weasel.
-Flesh-eaters All. All of one Brotherhood. Beasties Courageous. Squirrel
-is living up to us--he does his best with eggs."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"_Squirrel is living up to us?_" It was a cough and splutter from above
-and Stoat and Cub peered upwards. Squirrel sat twenty feet away, and
-stamped with indignation. "Squirrel is living up to us? My plumed tail!
-you wait till Squirrel grows."
-
- [Illustration: THE STOAT TIPTOED TOWARDS HIM]
-
-"Never mind him," said the Stoat, "he's silly."
-
-The broad grey back had swung about, and Badger's head was lifted.
-Slowly it swayed from side to side, slowly it nodded.
-
-"Where are his eyes?" whispered the Fox Cub.
-
-"In his head," chuckled the Stoat.
-
-"His head's a puzzle," said the Fox Cub--which, indeed, it was. Seen
-from above, and swinging to and fro, its clean-cut symmetries of black
-and white foreshortened in confusion.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"Wait till he fronts you," said the Stoat, and presently this happened.
-The head stopped motionless. A broad white stripe divided it; on either
-side were triangles of black; beneath was white again, and white tricked
-out the outline of each ear.
-
-"He's black beneath," said the Stoat, "and grey behind--now you can see
-him."
-
-Badger had backed a pace or two and craned his neck to snuffle.
-Ebon-chested he was and ebon-footed.
-
-"Still I can't see his eyes," muttered the Fox Cub, but, even as he
-spoke, he saw them--steadfast, watchful, gimlet eyes, as black as their
-black setting.
-
-"And now we _all_ have seen you," said the Stoat. "Marten has seen you;
-Polecat has seen you; Weasel has seen you; I have seen you; and Badger
-has seen you. Fox Cub, you yet have much to learn in stealth. Go, make
-your peace with Badger."
-
-"What have I done?" said the Fox Cub.
-
-"You've come unasked," said the Stoat.
-
-"I was brought," said the Fox Cub.
-
-"That makes no difference," said the Stoat. "The wood belongs to US!"
-
-"US! US! us!" the hillside caught the echo of it, and filled with
-sibilant voices.
-
- [Illustration: "MY PLUMED TAIL! YOU WAIT TILL SQUIRREL
- GROWS." "NEVER MIND HIM," SAID THE STOAT, "HE'S SILLY"]
-
-"US-S-S-S-s-s!" it was the Stoat departing.
-
-"US-S!" screamed the Squirrel, boldly, from his branch.
-
-"_You?_" sneered the Fox Cub. "You simian rat! You fuzz-tailed,
-fish-eyed rabbit! Think of your teeth next time you wash your face."
-
-The Squirrel stamped and spat at him. "Wait till I grow," he spluttered.
-"Wait till my head's as big as yours. Wait till I give up nuts."
-
-"Oh, do be quiet," said the Cub. "I want to think."
-
-"It might be worth my while," he mused. "I _like_ this wood."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Badger was grunting softly to himself. His head still swayed and nodded.
-Now and again he scratched the ground before him. The Fox Cub rose up
-cautiously, and sat back on his haunches. He saw the whole of Badger
-now, the iron-grey back, the magpie head, the stumpy tarbrush tail.
-
-He stole two stealthy paces down the slope, but checked as Badger
-squared himself. Two paces more--and Badger ducked his head, and charged
-full drive uphill at him.
-
-The Fox Cub bolted straightway, turned sharp upon the hill-crest, ran
-half the length of it, slid headlong down the sand-cliff (the stones
-rattling about him), followed the ride for fifty yards, swung sharply to
-the right, and so, by some strange instinct, reached the gorse-clump.
-
- [Illustration: MARTEN HAS SEEN YOU]
-
-He was quite badly scared. His tongue lolled dripping from his mouth;
-his sides heaved painfully; he felt that, come what may, he must lie
-down. So he squirmed, eel-like, underneath the furze, twisted himself
-about, and, with his head thrust outwards, snuffed and listened. He had
-outdistanced Badger--of that he soon assured himself. Yet there was
-something watching him, something whose curious stare he felt. His eyes
-ranged anxiously from point to point, dwelt on each tuft and hummock in
-the grass, dwelt long upon a jerking patch of moss, which in due course
-revealed a white-legged mouse, and in the end cast upwards.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Above him stretched a leafless branch of elm, and on its clean-cut,
-fretted edge a moving blur intruded--a blur which swelled and shrunk in
-steady rhythm, and twitched and wriggled forward in short jerks, so
-closely welded to the bark, so neatly matched in hue to it, that, but
-for movement, it had cheated sight.
-
-The Fox Cub watched it furtively, his yellow eyes upturned. It checked,
-and from the end of it dropped a soft feathery plume, and hung and
-dangled lightly. Its lines were unmistakable, it was a tail. Then, as
-the Fox Cub gazed, the head took shape--a flat-browed, taper-muzzled
-head, with shimmery velvet eyes, which seemed to look beyond as well as
-at him.
-
-Such was the Marten couched. Their eyes met, and he saw her rampant. She
-leapt from where she lay to where, six feet above, the branch forked
-double. Astride on this, her forefeet on the upper arm, her hind-feet on
-the lower, she faced about and screamed--
-
-"Ai-_yah_-ai-ee! Ai-_yah_-ai-ee! A Fox! A Fox!"
-
-The scream dropped to a whine, then to a bleat--"_Huh-huh-huh-huh!
-Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh!_"--then swelled into a scream again.
-
-Out leapt the Fox Cub, impudent, and faced the music.
-
-"The last part again, Marten," he cried. "Oh, _please_, the last part
-again!"
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The Marten stared, mouth open "A cub!" she gasped; "not even a grown
-fox--a woolly, blunt-nosed cub."
-
-"Do you know where you are?" she added, shortly.
-
-"Yes, I do," said the Fox Cub. "The wood belongs to US. Marten and
-Polecat, Stoat and Weasel. Flesh-eaters All. All of one Brotherhood.
-Beasties Courageous. I hope I've got that right--and you all kow-tow to
-Badger."
-
-"And where do _you_ come in?" said the Marten grimly. His coolness took
-her fancy.
-
-"The first good roomy hole I find," said the Fox Cub. "I like this wood
-and in this wood I'll stop."
-
-"_Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh_," said the Marten.
-
-"Quite so," said the Fox Cub.
-
-The Marten snuggled down, her eyes a-twinkle.
-
-"I know exactly the kind of hole you'd like," she said.
-
-"Where's that?" said the Fox Cub.
-
-"Listen to me carefully," said the Marten, "and you can't miss it. You
-know where the holm oak is--of course you don't. Look here. Get back on
-to the ride and follow that. It leads you to a hollow."
-
-"It leads two ways," said the Fox Cub.
-
-"You go downhill to the hollow," said the Marten, gently. "Right at the
-bottom you will find an oak-stump, and if you look inside it (which I
-don't advise), you will find a family of Polecats."
-
- [Illustration: "AND PERHAPS YOU WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH TO
- GET HIGHER UP THE TREE, WHILE I COME UNDERNEATH"]
-
-"Polecats?" said the Fox Cub.
-
-"Yes, Polecats," said the Marten.
-
-"Turn up to the left at the stump, and make for the silver birch at the
-top of the rise. The hole is close by that."
-
-"Much obliged," said the Fox Cub, "and perhaps you will be good enough
-to get higher up the tree, while I come underneath."
-
-"Certainly," said the Marten. From twig to twig she sprang, so daintily,
-so airily, that a mere flutter signalled her ascent.
-
-"Will this do?" cried she from the topmost branch. Her forefeet hung on
-its extremity; her hind-feet curved and dangled; her tail twitched
-underneath her.
-
-"That will do," said the Fox Cub. Before the words were spoken he was
-past the tree; before the Marten reached the ground he gained his
-stride, which was good going. The Marten checked at twenty yards. "I've
-done my share," she said, and sauntered up the tree again.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The Fox Cub quickly hit the ride, noted its slope, and keeping close in
-touch with it, slunk velvet-footed through the abutting cover. His pads
-dropped soft as thistle-down, he scarcely stirred a leaf, and yet the
-weasel, nosing in the brambles, got wind of him and squeaked. She was a
-five-inch weasel, too small to check his progress, yet large enough for
-mischief. Should she be silenced? He swung about--the scent of her still
-lingered--and in a moment he was on her trail. Three bounds and he had
-sighted her. She shot beneath a bramble-patch, issued where he had least
-foreseen, and tricked him in a maze of straggling roots. He worked back,
-sulky-faced, towards the ride, but checked ten paces from the oak-stump.
-Its tenant sat upon it--the purple, snaking, whiplash thing which had
-perplexed him earlier. Now he saw head to tail of it. The white-rimmed
-ears, the ochre-banded forehead, the bold eyes, spectacled with brown,
-the coarse brown-purple body-fur flecked here and there with streaks of
-shimmery buff--all these he took quiet note of, and presently saw many
-aspects of them.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The Marten had been right. The Polecat's mate came sneaking from the
-hollow, and close behind her squirmed four red-brown cubs, loose-jointed
-yet, but muscular, whimpering pettishly, mauling each other as they ran.
-
-Six Polecats knit by kinship! it was too much for one Fox Cub to face.
-He cast wide off to right of them, and, creeping quietly round again,
-regained the ride to leeward. Here it cut through rough coppice. The
-western slope was thickly wooded, low bushes mostly, chestnut, birch,
-and hazel, yet high enough to screen what lay beyond. He started to
-explore the upper ground. At first the incline was easy, but half way up
-it steepened to a cliff. Coppice gave place to grass and briar, and
-these in turn to gorse and slithery sand. By slow degrees he zigzagged
-to the summit, faced round, and scanned the depths which he had left.
-The oak stump stood out clear against the ride, and, on his right, two
-hundred yards away, he marked the silver birch. He scrambled down to
-grass again, and, travelling quickly on mid-slope, found what he sought
-within two minutes.
-
-Viewed from below--it opened near the skyline--the hole seemed promising
-enough. It was a spacious sheltered hole, almost a cavern--the depths of
-it ink-black, the entrance to it jagged and arching. The Fox Cub stole
-up cautiously and stopped dead on its threshold. Something was in
-possession, something which split the darkened void in three; something
-which crept out slowly from the black, first shadowy grey, then white--a
-clean-cut _fleur-de-lys_ of white.
-
-It was another Badger.
-
-The Fox Cub leapt back sideways, but even so she caught him. She came
-out (thirty pounds of her) full charge, and caught him low. The
-attacking badger tosses like a bull, trusting to weight and side-swing
-of the shoulders. He somersaulted twice. The Badger held straight on her
-course and disappeared downhill.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The Fox Cub slowly pulled himself together. Had he been bitten? Bruised
-he was all over, and sick, and giddy; and so, the hole being there, he
-crept within it, and crawled down the main shaft for fifteen yards, and
-took one of four turnings, and followed this until it forked, and then
-chose the right gallery, and so attained the nest. Rather the haystack,
-for the making of it had almost stripped an acre. Bracken there was, and
-bent-grass, thyme and clover, arum stalk and bluebell, thick swathes of
-them inextricably tangled, bedding enough for twenty half-grown cubs.
-
-There was food also. He found a rabbit's leg at once, then a stiff
-mummied frog, then half a snake. He made a closer search, and found more
-rabbit. Each find he sampled. Most of them he gulped, but some he buried
-carefully for seasoning, scraping small hollows to receive them, and
-plastering earth upon them with his nose. This done, he coiled himself
-up tight, and for five minutes dozed with wakeful ears. Thirst brought
-him to his feet again; thirst and a sense of danger. Clearly this was
-the Badger's hole--he owed that Marten something. The hole had a main
-entrance. From this a single shaft led fifteen yards, but then it split,
-and smaller tunnels joined it, tunnels which might end blind. Badgers no
-doubt were most benevolent, but Badgers seem to charge at sight, and
-tunnels were poor places to be charged in. The last reflection scared
-him back to sense. He would be cornered hopelessly, would not know which
-of twenty turns to take. That settled it. To wait for them was madness.
-He must go.
-
- [Illustration: IT WAS ANOTHER BADGER]
-
-He reached the entrance without accident, and dropped soft-footed down
-the slope. A puddle on the ride was in his mind--a puddle just beyond
-the Polecat's stump. He reached this safely also, stooped down his head,
-and lapped his fill.
-
-The wood was oddly silent. Dark clouds had massed low in the sky and
-streamed to either side, outflanking it. Beneath their dreary shadow the
-green and russet of the trees faded to lifeless grey. The grass-blades
-stood up stiffly; the leaves hung stiffly downwards. All that was
-weatherwise was taking cover. Down from the summit of the ride came the
-two Badgers, bumping. They travelled leisurely.
-
-First He would root an arum up (a flick with one fore-paw), and She
-would place her paw where his had been. Then He would stretch tiptoe
-against an oak, and She would do the same. Then He would wheel sharp
-right or left, and She would follow like a truck.
-
- [Illustration: SHE CAME OUT FULL CHARGE]
-
-The Cub had time to entrench himself securely. He chose the summit of
-the Polecat's stump, and from it watched the pair of them bump past.
-They quickened as they faced the rise, and grunted to each other; then,
-with their heads down, sped in line uphill.
-
-And with their going came the rain.
-
-It spattered in large warning drops, then swished in sheets. Even before
-the thunder-peals, and rattle of fierce hail, the stump became
-untenable. The Fox Cub scrambled down from it, headed a dozen different
-ways, and, in the end, grown desperate, pursued the retreating Badgers.
-He caught them as they reached the hole, and saw them topple down it. He
-gave them half a minute's grace and toppled after.
-
- [Illustration: AND IN DUE COURSE OF TIME, HIS WIFE]
-
-What happened next? That I can only guess at. Perhaps there was a Fox
-Cub course for dinner; perhaps (and this, I think, is likeliest) the
-Badgers took small notice of his entry. They may have even welcomed him,
-and, in due course of time, his wife.
-
-
-
-
- SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING
- AND WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING
- (SEPTEMBER)
-
-
- [Illustration: THE LOBSTER MOTH CATERPILLAR
- Pretending to be a Spider]
-
-The wolves and sheep I am going to talk about are all of them insects,
-or rather all of them but one, for scientific people do not allow us to
-call spiders insects. Insects have six legs and six legs only, while
-spiders and mites and those sort of people have eight, and there are a
-great many other differences between spiders and true insects which
-would make it quite a dreadful blunder to put them in the same case in
-the Museum, or to speak of them in the same breath when you know you are
-talking to clever people.
-
-The Spider, as you might guess, is one of the Wolves, and so is the
-Dragon in the Water-weed, who turns into one of our largest dragon
-flies, if he is lucky; while the caterpillars and the Giant Wood Wasp
-are just silly harmless sheep.
-
-Have you ever thought of the wonderful struggles which are always going
-on in the insect world--the struggles to eat, and the struggles not to
-be eaten? Nearly all insects seem to be the food for something or other.
-Most animals enjoy them thoroughly, so do many birds, and many reptiles
-and amphibians (frogs and toads) and many fish. I think that spiders
-live on them entirely, and they have also cannibals to fear among their
-own kind, for though most insects feed on plant-juice, quite a large
-number of them turn to stronger meat, and spend their lives in hunting
-their poor relations. It sounds rather horrible, doesn't it? But we may
-be quite sure that everything of the kind has been mercifully arranged
-so that this beautiful world of ours, with all its joy and colour, and
-its millions and millions of happy children--I do not think that any
-lives but those of human beings are ever really unhappy--may keep its
-beauty always. That is why the ichneumon flies have to kill down the
-caterpillars, for, if there were too many caterpillars, there would be
-no hedgerows, let alone vegetables for dinner; and the Rove Beetles, who
-have curly cock-up tails, have to kill down the little boring beetles,
-for, if there were too many little boring beetles there would be no
-trees; and the Crabros have to kill down the blue-bottles, for if there
-were too many blue-bottles--well, goodness knows what _would_ happen to
-some excitable people.
-
-We must believe then that things are best as they are--that a struggle
-for life is part of a Great Plan, Greater than our human minds can
-grasp, and that the lives of the hunters are as useful in their way as
-the lives of the hunted.
-
-Now how would we ourselves act, if our lives depended on catching
-things? And how would we act if our lives depended on not being caught?
-I don't think we could add much to what the insects and spiders have
-taught us. To hunt successfully you must get so near to your quarry that
-you can kill it. If you are quicker-footed, well and good. If you are
-slower-footed you may employ something quicker-footed than
-yourself--this is what happens in fox-hunting; or you may approach
-without being seen--this is what happens in deer-stalking: or you may
-hide yourself and wait for your quarry to approach you--this is what
-happens in tiger-shooting; or, lastly, you may employ traps and snares,
-which is how most fishing is done. I don't think that any creatures but
-ourselves employ lower creatures to hunt for them, but the other ways
-are used by all sorts of animals, and the last two are used more
-skilfully by insects and spiders than by anything else.
-
- [Illustration: THE SPIDER ON THE BRAMBLE BLOSSOM]
-
-Look at the pictures of the spider on the bramble-blossom. This
-particular spider belongs to a family called _Thomisus_ (I don't know
-why) and he varies in colour from a bright sulphur yellow to a delicate
-green, which is an exact match to the green of an unopened bramble-bud.
-In three of the pictures (a fly has settled close to the spider in two
-of them) you will be able to make out the spider pretty soon, I expect,
-for he has stretched his legs out. He keeps quite still in this
-position, and I think he fancies that he is a bramble-bud. But in the
-other picture I am pretty sure that, if he did not happen to be a rather
-fat spider, you would find it very difficult to distinguish him, and you
-may be certain that a fly would find it just as difficult. He is a wolf
-in sheep's clothing, and the sheep are bramble-buds.
-
- [Illustration: THE DRAGON IN THE WATER-WEED]
-
- [Illustration: THE DRAGON IN THE WATER-WEED
- This is the back of him, and you can see that he is covered
- with a delicate water-weed]
-
-And now for the Dragon in the Water-weed. You will not be able to make
-him out at all at first, but if you look long enough you will see his
-body which is too thick to be a piece of weed, and if you then let your
-eyes travel upwards, you will see his "mask," which is like a pair of
-folding-doors. These open and let his jaws out when he wants to use
-them. And his disguise is even more slim than that of the spider, for
-not only does he mimic the Water-weed round him--his straggly legs,
-which you should be able to make out also, help him in this--but he
-actually becomes part of his surroundings, for all over him grows a
-delicate water-weed, and when he is at the bottom of the pond, where he
-spends most of his time, he is _part_ of the bottom of the pond, and the
-creatures which he would eat walk past him carelessly. He is a wolf in
-sheep's clothing, and the sheep are water-weeds.
-
- [Illustration: THE LOBSTER MOTH CATERPILLAR
- As he looks when angry]
-
-And now for the sheep who are just as clever really as the wolves. Two
-of these are caterpillars--quite the most curious pair of caterpillars
-to be met with in this country--and the third is a sawfly. Sawflies get
-their name from having an instrument with which they can bore or saw, as
-the case may be, into leaves or trees, and this is the largest one we
-have in England.
-
-The hunter-insects, as we have seen, disguise themselves so as to get
-near their victims unawares, and the hunted disguise themselves very
-often in the same way so as to avoid being seen, but sometimes in such a
-way that if they _are_ seen they may appear to be much more terrible
-creatures than they really are. And so we have the sheep in wolves'
-clothing.
-
- [Illustration: THE ICHNEUMON FLY]
-
-The hunters of the caterpillars are the ichneumon flies. Ichneumon flies
-do not eat caterpillars but lay their eggs inside them. They have a
-special instrument for the purpose, and when the grubs hatch out they
-gradually eat away the fleshy parts of the caterpillar so that it seldom
-has strength enough to turn into a chrysalis, let alone a butterfly, or
-moth, or beetle, as the case may be. Now what is the chief enemy of a
-fly? Why, of course, a spider. If then something which dreads an
-ichneumon fly can make itself look like that fly's worst enemy, a
-spider, it will have a good chance of scoring off the fly.
-
-The Caterpillar of the Lobster Moth, of which I show you two pictures,
-can do this to a nicety. He has, as you see, an extraordinary shape for
-a caterpillar, I don't think that any other caterpillar in this country
-has the same long skinny legs--and he is able to strike extraordinary
-attitudes which make him look very spidery indeed, particularly from in
-front, for then the two little spikes at the end of his lobster body
-appear over the top of his head and look like a spider's pincers. Mother
-Nature has been very careful of her Lobster Moth caterpillar. When he is
-quite a baby he looks just like a little black ant. When he is asleep he
-folds up his legs and looks like a shrivelled beech-leaf--he usually
-feeds on beech--and, when he is attacked by an ichneumon fly (you can
-make him think he is being attacked by tickling him with a paint-brush)
-he turns himself at once into a sham spider, by throwing back his head
-as far as it will go and shuddering his skinny legs in the air.
-
- [Illustration: THE PUSS MOTH CATERPILLAR
- As he looks when angry]
-
-The Puss Moth caterpillar is almost as curious. He, too, strikes
-fearsome attitudes. He has eye-markings to help him (you will have read
-about these elsewhere) and he can also squirt out an acid from
-underneath his chin. These two defences are probably most useful against
-animals and birds and lizards and creatures of that kind, but they do
-not seem to be much use against an ichneumon fly, and so Mother Nature
-has helped him further, by giving him two little pink whiplashes, which
-shoot out from the prongs at his tail end when he is really annoyed.
-When a fly comes near him he brandishes them as you see in the picture.
-
- [Illustration: THE GIANT WOOD WASP
- It has no poisonous sting, though it looks as if it had a
- very fine one]
-
-Our last sheep is the Giant Wood Wasp, who is not a wasp at all, and is
-much more common in this country than he used to be. He is a handsome
-black and yellow insect with a body about an inch long, and his wolf's
-clothing is his black and yellow colour. This is the commonest wolf's
-clothing of all. You know I expect that a number of stinging insects,
-wasps and bees, have a black and yellow, or black and red colouring, and
-you know too, I dare say, that there are a great many flies who have no
-stings but are coloured in much the same way. Well, it is thought that
-these flies without stings, of which the Giant Wood Wasp is one, may
-sometimes avoid attack because they frighten their enemies by looking as
-if they _had_ stings. Suppose a young sparrow ate a wasp, he would
-probably get stung, and it might happen that next time he saw a black
-and yellow fly, he would mistake it for a wasp and so not eat it. If
-this _did_ happen, the fly would have owed his life to being black and
-yellow.
-
-
-
-
- THE BEASTIES' BEDTIME
- (OCTOBER)
-
-
- [Illustration: THE QUEEN WASP IN HER WINTER SLEEP
- She puts her wings _underneath_ her body, so that they
- sha'n't get damaged, and holds on chiefly with her mouth]
-
-How would you like to sleep straightaway through the winter, and miss
-Guy Fawkes, and Christmas, and New Year, and Valentine's Day, and
-skating, and snowballing, and round games in the evening, and having
-stories read to you by the fire, and all those delightful things which
-come to cheer us when the weather is damp and gloomy, making us feel
-somehow that summer is a queer, impossible kind of time, just as in
-summer we find it hard to imagine what it feels like to be really cold?
-I want you to remember in this winter which is coming what a number of
-little creatures in the wide world around you are fast, fast asleep. I
-want you to think how wonderful it is that these little creatures are
-able to dream away the time when there is nothing for them to eat, and
-to wake again when there is food in plenty.
-
- [Illustration: BILL THE LIZARD]
-
-Every year when the evenings begin to come quicker and quicker, and grow
-colder and colder, Mother Nature, who is the mother of our dear own
-mothers, puts her babies to bed at the time which she knows is best. A
-queer set of babies they are! Babies of such different kinds that it is
-a wonder she can keep them all in her head, and not have to say
-sometimes to herself: "Good gracious, I forgot my dormouse: and I don't
-believe my brown lizard was properly tucked up in the grass-tuft; and as
-for my prickly hedge-pig, I don't remember where I sent him last."
-
-But Mother Nature never does forget, and never spoils her babies. She
-whispers "bedtime," and they go.
-
-The little insects go first--the flies, and beetles, and earwigs, and
-frog-hoppers, and myriads of other tiny creatures which you can see in
-the grass on any warm day by just lying down and opening your eyes.
-
- [Illustration: TOADUMS]
-
-For all Mother Nature's care I fear that most of these die, but some may
-manage to live through the cold, and among the larger kinds of insects
-some always do. You remember what I told you about the Brimstone
-Butterfly! The Queen Wasp is another of the lucky ones.
-
-She creeps into some sheltered crevice, where she can find a shred of
-something small enough to take into her mouth. This sounds queer,
-doesn't it? I will tell you the reason. The Queen Wasp sleeps hanging by
-her jaws, and hardly trusting to her legs at all. You can see what she
-looks like in the picture, and you must notice that she has tucked her
-wings right underneath her body so that nothing can brush against them.
-
- [Illustration: ROUND EYE THE DORMOUSE]
-
-After the insects go the reptiles and the frogs. These are cold-blooded
-creatures, so they have no need to make a nest to keep them warm, but
-they don't like to be too cold, and always creep somewhere where the
-frost will not reach them. Bill the lizard sometimes goes deep down into
-a large grass-tuft, and sometimes creeps into a mouse-hole. Froggin
-dives into a pond and wriggles into the mud, or underneath a stone, and
-there sleeps under the water until the hot sunshine comes again, and he
-knows, by the feel of things, that it is time to be moving. Toadums
-prefers to sleep on land. He lies quite flat, with his hands in front of
-his eyes, and wakes up a little later than Froggin.
-
- [Illustration: THE DORMOUSE IN HIS WINTER SLEEP
- He bunches himself up so as to close all the doors that the
- air can get in by, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, everything]
-
-After these the animals. Round Eye the dormouse goes to sleep about
-November. He builds a nest of leaves and grass all around himself, and,
-if the winter is cold, sleeps straight away into April. If the winter is
-warm, however, he may wake up and eat a little food, and if he is a wise
-little mouse, as he usually is, he keeps a little store of nuts and
-seeds at hand in case he _does_ wake up. Prickles the hedge-pig does
-much the same. He has a nest which is even warmer, for, besides the
-leaves and grass which make the round of it, he rolls his spines into
-anything soft which will stick to them and so has a nice warm blanket
-next to his skin. Once he has dropped off to sleep he stays asleep till
-the spring comes. I don't think he ever wakes up like the dormouse, or
-ever makes a store of food.
-
- [Illustration: PRICKLES THE HEDGE-PIG]
-
-The only other animals which sleep the winter through in this country
-are the bats, and some of them sleep even longer than the dormouse and
-the hedge-pig; indeed, they are only awake for three or four months in
-the year. Sometimes there are crowds of them sleeping together in old
-caves, and tree trunks, and places like that, and it may be that they
-half wake up and talk to each other to pass away the time. Indeed, if
-you know their hole and can put your ear close to it, you can sometimes
-hear them talking and squabbling--faint little squabblings like the
-sound of a kettle simmering on the hob when you can just hear the tiny
-bubbles hitting each other and bursting with bad temper.
-
- [Illustration: THE HEDGE-PIG IN HIS WINTER SLEEP
- He is not so tightly coiled as when he shuts up to defend
- himself]
-
-When bats are flying about and hunting for moths they often squeak for
-joy, and then their voice is quite different. It is so high that some
-people cannot hear it at all; but you can make a noise just like it by
-striking two pennies sharply together, and if you can hear that being
-done when you are several yards away from the person who is doing it,
-you ought to be able to hear a bat squeak too.
-
- [Illustration: THE LESSER HORSESHOE BAT IN HIS WINTER SLEEP
- He is hanging head-downwards and is completely shut up in
- his own wings, which, you see, are beautifully folded]
-
-You have to watch bats very closely before you can tell one kind from
-another, and I expect some of you will be surprised to hear that there
-are more different kinds of bats in England than there are of any other
-kinds of animals. There are, at least, twelve different kinds of English
-bats, and, as bats now and then seem to get blown over the sea from
-France, or be brought in the rigging of ships, quite a strange foreign
-bat may turn up sometimes.
-
-
-
-
- THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS
- (MICHAELMAS DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration: BARTIMÆUS]
-
-Bartimæus was simply mole-tired (which is as tired as a beastie can be),
-and he lay on his side, with his nose tucked into his waistcoat, and
-dreamed of Nydia, fretfully. Nydia was half a field away, dozing in a
-snug fortress of her own, with four fat helpless babies to attend to,
-and not a passing thought for Bartimæus.
-
-Five times within twelve hours had Bartimæus sought her. Five times had
-he traversed his main-line tunnel, turned eastward at the junction by
-the fence, and, breasting up the up-grade full tilt, thrust an inquiring
-nose at Nydia's nest. Why shouldn't he? Why should he stand on ceremony
-with four fat, squirmy, wrinkled, hairless infants?
-
-But Nydia had been mightily offended. Each time she had boxed his ears.
-Each time she had bitten him. And so he had retreated; not for fear, but
-for black shame--black shame which he had brought upon himself; for
-Father Moles may not approach Mole babies--that is Mole law, and that
-has been Mole law since Moles first dug.
-
-Long journeyings these to Nydia, a hundred yards each way at least, but
-not of length to tire him. He had found time and energy for in-between
-excursions. One to the mill-house orchard--there staring hillocks proved
-it; one to the sacred croquet lawn--he left his marks here also; one to
-the mid-field partridge nest, which meant one egg the less.
-
- [Illustration: HE HEADED STRAIGHT FOR WATER]
-
-A cheerful strenuous day's work; on which, but for the finish of it, he
-might have slept at ease.
-
-Nydia's last bite and buffet had been real.
-
-She swept her right hand cross-ways, baring her teeth in line with it,
-and screwing round her shoulders for the swing. Then she lunged
-backwards viciously. This meant a dragging wound which hurt, and
-Bartimæus had bitten too, and, as ill-luck would have it, bitten a baby.
-Nydia flung at him squealing, and, when a Mother Mole flings at you
-squealing, one prudent course and only one is open.
-
-His nose was bleeding as he started home, and he was hot and thirsty. He
-headed straight for water. A ten-yard down-slant brought him to the
-brook. He drank his fill, then, tempted by the coolness, set off
-swimming. He swam as deftly as a water-shrew, high out of water, with
-his stumpy tail cocked upward in his wake.
-
- [Illustration: THE BANK ROSE STEEPLY OVER HIM]
-
-He reached the farther side without mishap, rustled the moisture off his
-fur, then started climbing. The bank rose steeply over him, but here and
-there a naked root gave hand-hold, and, shoulder-hoisted over these, he
-scrambled to the level. On this he travelled easily, using his
-paddle-hands as sweeps, and scuttling with his feet. From the brookside
-half-way across the field, and almost to the dried-up middle-ditch, bent
-grass-stems marked his trail. He checked close by the alder-stump, nosed
-at the ground, and started digging.
-
-Perhaps he scented supper.
-
-The alder-stump is populous still. Its core, now sapless, lifeless
-touchwood, is riddled through and through. Here moths-to-be, and
-flies-to-be, and beetles-to-be have spent their youth and fattened.
-Virtue still lingers in the roots, and, hidden by the forks and bends of
-them, quiet lives consume, or bide their time. Now and again a human
-hand "collects" them, now and again a mole, the skilfullest pupa hunter
-in the world.
-
-Yet Bartimæus was not really hungry--he dug more from ill-humour,
-wrenching the grass-tufts sideways with his teeth, and slashing fiercely
-with his hands, until he forced an entrance for his shoulders.
-
-Then his whole action changed.
-
-He stabbed his nose into the soil, and, twisting from the shoulders,
-screwed it home. Then he drew back his head, turned over sideways, and,
-with one shoulder and one hand thrust out, gained purchase where his
-nose had been, and scratched at the soft earth. As one side tired he
-turned about, and thrust its fellow forward. Sometimes he lay upon his
-back, and heaved and squirmed and shuffled. Sometimes he screwed his
-way, his whole frame twisted spirally, half prostrate, half supine.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-He drove a six-inch downward slant, then, for one yard, a level course,
-then upwards half a foot again. His pink nose broke the surface crust,
-snuffed, and dropped back. The first stage was accomplished, but only
-the first stage. His tube was choked and littered end to end. He backed
-nine inches through the loose, reversed, ducked down his head, and
-charged. Part of the rubble caked as he drove past, and part was swept
-before him to the outlet. It spurted through and sprayed upon the grass.
-Six charges raised a mole hill, and left a half-yard tunnel clear. His
-hands compressed the sides of it to smoothness.
-
-He made a cave and four runs leading from it. Three plunged deep down,
-and hillocks marked their course. The fourth was near the surface. Its
-flimsy roof, pressed upwards from below, and dotted end to end with
-spits of soil, cast a betraying shadow.
-
-It was good feeding-ground. In it were worms innumerable, slow-minded
-worms which held their ground too long, and footless leathern-coated
-grubs, grubs of beetles and flies, and eggs innumerable, grasshoppers'
-eggs, earwigs' eggs, and eggs of smaller fry, some massed in sticky
-clutches, some dispersed.
-
-He toiled and fed alternately. He made a nest inside his cave, a mass of
-leaves and grasses dragged down into his surface run (to thrust his
-mouth out was sufficient), and pulled or pushed into their proper
-station.
-
-This done he slept, his head tucked down between his hands, his hind
-feet curled up under him.
-
-All but his ears slept soundly.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-_One-Two--One-Two--One-Two._ Twin footfalls almost over him, and with
-them a soliloquy deep-toned.
-
-"Comin' right down valley they be. That's them water-works. Down goes
-springs. Up comes nunkey-tumps. I'll get this one for sure. Here!
-Tatters!"
-
-Out like a loosened spring leapt Bartimæus, and plunged into his surface
-run. Half-way along it he stopped dead and listened, the tip of his pink
-nose thrust through the roof.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Man's booted tread he knew full well; man's voice he knew, but something
-else was coming,--something which lilted pit-a-pat, something with
-yielding velvet pads, something four-footed. It danced towards him,
-louder still and louder, till a hoarse whisper checked it. "Steady you
-fool! Here good dog! Steady!"
-
-The pink nose dropped. Only one grass-blade stirred, but Tatters saw it.
-
-His every muscle tautened as he pointed. His hair stood stiff upon his
-back, his eyes stared fixedly.
-
- [Illustration: ONLY ONE GRASS-BLADE STIRRED, BUT TATTERS SAW IT]
-
-For half a minute he stood tense; then Bartimæus breathed, and at his
-breath a grass-stem twitched and flickered.
-
-Tatters upreared and poised himself, stayed poised a moment, then, with
-a vicious dropping lunge, stabbed with his forefeet downward. His muzzle
-followed instantly, and screwed and ploughed along the run until the
-weight of roof upcurled checked further progress.
-
-Then only did he raise his head and look back shamefaced at his master.
-He had completely missed.
-
-"Tatters, you'm grown old, I reckon--like your Master. Never mind, lad,
-we'll have 'im yet. We'll put a trap down tea-time. Come off it now!
-Think you can scratch him out?"
-
-Tatters was burrowing tooth and nail, uprooting grass clumps with his
-teeth, drumming with his forefeet, and showering sods between his hind
-feet backwards. He raised a wistful, mud-stained face and whined, shook
-himself doubtfully, started, turned back for one more scratch, then
-galloped to his master's call.
-
-And Bartimæus had been burrowing too--opening a bolt-hole which should
-close behind him, passing the dislodged earth beneath himself, and
-piling it to cover his retreat.
-
-Tatters had all but pinned his body, and that would have meant death to
-him. Tatters _had_ pinned his tail, but, with a wriggle, he had freed
-himself, out-distanced the pursuing nose, dived through the nest, and
-twisting sharply right, reached the west outlet shaft. Fist over feet he
-scuttled down and screwed himself into the blinded end. He bored two
-yards zigzagging, then paused for breath. He pricked his stumpy whiskers
-up, starred the grey fur about his eyes, spread wide his pinhole ears.
-He was quite safe. The ground before, behind, and on all sides of him,
-was dead. Ten minutes passed before he moved, then he worked quickly
-upwards, and broke the ground beneath a clump of thistles.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"They've gone," said a small piping voice above him.
-
-The nose of Bartimæus, pink and quivery, had issued first, his bullet
-head had followed, then his great hands and shoulders. The sunbeams
-played upon his coat, and waves of limpid shimmery blue crept softly to
-and fro in it.
-
-"They've gone," the Harvest Mouse repeated.
-
-"Excellent!" said Bartimæus. "I can't see who I am talking to--this
-awful glare!--but it will pass--and meanwhile I can guess at you. You
-are a mouse; a small mouse, with sharp-pointed toes, a blunted tail, and
-a warm-orange coat."
-
-"How did you know that?" said the Harvest Mouse.
-
-"I heard you, and I felt you, and I smelt you," said Bartimæus. "You ran
-up just before I put my nose out. I heard your tail flick after you. I
-heard the leaves crack underneath your feet. I felt and smelt your
-colour. If you lived underground like me, you'd notice things."
-
-"Give me the sunshine," said the Harvest Mouse (its beauty doubled on
-her coat). "If you could see what I can see you'd go back home."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"How's that?" said Bartimæus.
-
-"It's near the fence," the Harvest Mouse replied, "you'd better run and
-look at it."
-
-"It would take a lot to scare _me_," said Bartimæus, and puffed his
-little chest out. His chest was like the mouse's back, warm orange.
-
-"This will scare you," she said. "You strike from here towards the sun
-and you can't miss it. It throws a shadow at you."
-
-"I'm off," said Bartimæus, and straightway started burrowing.
-
-The Harvest Mouse stood up full length, and watched his ripple fading
-into distance. Then she dropped down to earth.
-
-"That was a quite nice Mole," she said, "it really _is_ a pity."
-
-A surface run is child's play to a Mole. He bores it almost at his
-surface pace. The roof springs ready-moulded from his back, and
-lengthens like a paid-out rope behind him.
-
-The fence was reached so suddenly that Bartimæus stubbed his nose
-against it. He bit and tore it, thinking it was root, then, finding it
-too hard for him--it was red teak--worked ten yards back and thrust his
-head and shoulders above ground.
-
- [Illustration: THE HARVEST MOUSE STOOD UP FULL LENGTH]
-
-The sun was low behind the fence. The shadow of it lengthened out
-towards him and, in between its clefts, crept dazzling gold-red rays.
-For full ten minutes Bartimæus' head swayed nodding side to side. Now
-and again he twitched one hand impatiently. He fought for a clear
-vision. Each time he faced the dazzling streams of light, his head fell
-worsted sideways, and minutes passed before he could look up again.
-
-At last their brilliance faded, and, somewhat to the right of him, a
-stunted bush took shape.
-
-The stem of it loomed dark in the fence shadow; the leaves were darker
-still--and there was something queer about the leaves. They were too
-large, too black, too solid.
-
-The breeze could hardly stir them, and, when they stirred, it was as
-though they spun.
-
-No more could be determined certainly. He left his run bent on a closer
-vision.
-
-It was no bush at all. It was a thick-stemmed alder-branch staked in the
-soil. The leaves were moles--moles like himself, or rather moles which
-had been like himself. For all were dead. Their bodies dangled
-pitifully, or, with poor shrivelled outstretched hands, spun as the
-breeze compelled them.
-
-It was too much for Bartimæus' nerves. He turned about and fled, crashed
-luckily through his own tunnel's roof, and ran as though mole-ghosts
-were at his heels.
-
-And something ran ahead of him, and reached the thistle half a yard in
-front.
-
- [Illustration: THE HARVEST MOUSE DREW HERSELF UP INDIGNANT]
-
-"Did you find it?" said the Harvest Mouse. She sat at her old station
-nibbling.
-
-"You beast," said Bartimæus, "you heartless little beast."
-
-The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant.
-
-"You're blinder than I thought," she said.
-
-"It was a mean trick," muttered Bartimæus.
-
-"It was a good turn," said the Harvest Mouse.
-
-"Now listen, for I know this meadow end to end. It is no place for
-Moles. Ask the red-coated Meadow Mouse. Ask the Pygmy Shrew. Ask any one
-who really knows. Worse things than dogs come into it."
-
- [Illustration: "WEASELS!" SAID THE MEADOW MOUSE]
-
-"Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse. "Oh, never wait for weasels in a run.
-I really thought that you were one behind me." This to Bartimæus.
-
-"Cats!" said the Pygmy Shrew. Vainly did Bartimæus strive to see her--a
-sorrel leaf concealed her, head to tail.
-
-"Worse than dogs. Worse than weasels. Worse than cats," said the Harvest
-Mouse. "TRAPS!"
-
-"We Harvest Mice are never trapped, and stump-tail mice are only trapped
-by chance--or their own folly. I saw one once. He walked inside because
-it rained in torrents. Down went the door, and he was drowned, with
-cheese afloat all round him."
-
-"Cheese is good," said the Meadow Mouse.
-
-"Cheese is glorious," said the Pygmy Shrew.
-
-"There you are. You'd go anywhere for cheese," said the Harvest Mouse.
-"One bite--a snap behind--and then where are you?"
-
-"I'm out in front," said the Pygmy Shrew.
-
-"You'll try that once too often," said the Harvest Mouse.
-
-"Now I hate cheese--the smell of it spells danger. But there are traps
-and traps--and the worst traps are traps with nothing in them."
-
-"That's so," said the Meadow Mouse.
-
-"You can smell them, can't you?" said Bartimæus.
-
-"You can smell them if you go slow enough," said the Harvest Mouse, "but
-when do _you_ go slow? Now mark my words. It's just about your sleeping
-time. You'll sleep for your full hour, then you'll wake hungry. You'll
-rush full tilt until you reach your slant. You'll rush down that, you'll
-rush along your gallery. _Won't_ you now?"
-
-"P'raps," muttered Bartimæus. He had withdrawn his nose below, and sleep
-was stealing over him.
-
-"Well, don't!" said the Harvest Mouse.
-
-"Don't!" said the Meadow Mouse.
-
-"Don't!" said the Pygmy.
-
-"Don't what?" said Bartimæus in his sleep.
-
-"Don't rush!" said the Harvest Mouse. "Don't rush. Don't rush!"
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-He slept for his full hour and woke to find the Pygmy at his side. "It's
-in your centre gallery," she whispered. "I've slipped right through it
-twice."
-
-"My _centre_ gallery?" shouted Bartimæus. "My _centre_ gallery? I'll
-have my centre gallery clear."
-
-He started burrowing straightway.
-
-"Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind. "Don't rush! It's death to
-rush!"
-
-And yet it was his rush that saved him.
-
- [Illustration: "DON'T RUSH!" THE PYGMY SCREAMED BEHIND]
-
-The crumbled earth which still lay in the bolt-hole, melted before it.
-Part slipped to either side of him. Part massed before his plunging
-head, and, reaching the clear downshaft, dropped. With it there dropped
-a stone--a rounded half-inch stone, which danced along the gallery at
-the foot, cannoned from side to side of it, spun round and pulled up
-short, six inches in advance of him. His senses signalled something in
-his path. His senses signalled a clear passage through it, and a clear
-space beyond it. His senses urged more pace. So he crashed on. He
-stubbed his hands against a ring of iron: the ring gave way: there was a
-snap and two iron jaws had gripped his waist. But for the stone which
-jammed against the clinch of them, he must have met his death. And death
-itself had scarcely brought more torture. It was as though the half of
-him sped on while half remained behind. The back wrench left him
-senseless, and so the Pygmy found him. It was the pit-pat of her on his
-fur, the cobweb flutter of her questionings, which roused him back to
-life.
-
- [Illustration: HIS FORTRESS, HIS OWN FORTRESS, HAD BEEN BREACHED]
-
-"I'm done," he muttered, "done as sure as sure."
-
-"Not you!" she answered bravely, "the trap's not closed--not half.
-_Wriggle_, dear Uncle, _wriggle_!"
-
-And Bartimæus wriggled.
-
-He wriggled right; he wriggled left; he wriggled up; he wriggled down;
-he brought his hands to bear upon the iron and with a supreme twist he
-wriggled free.
-
-Then he saw red.
-
-He flung himself against the trap, and bit at it, and scratched at it,
-and shook it with his shoulders, and heaved and strained and wrenched at
-it, until it lay upturned upon the surface. He was convulsed with windy
-gusts of rage: nose-tip to tail he boiled; nor did he gain composure
-until the field was far behind, and he had reached the smooth-faced tube
-which led to his own fortress. Hand over foot he sped the length of it,
-dived down the U-shaped entrance hole, bobbed up again and climbed into
-his nest.
-
-His troubles were not over.
-
-His fortress, his own fortress, had been breached. The nest lay open to
-the day, windswept.
-
-For a full hour he toiled repairing it, then, mole-tired, coiled to
-sleep.
-
-
-
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON
- (NOVEMBER)
-
-  "''Tis green! 'tis green, Sir, I assure ye.'
-  'Green!' cries the other in a fury.
-  'Why, Sir, d'ye think I've lost my eyes?'
-  ''Twere no great loss,' the friend replies,
-  'For if they always serve you thus,
-  'You'll find them but of little use.'"
-
-
-I wonder how many of you know these lines? Not so very long ago most
-young people used to have to learn the poem from which they are taken,
-but I don't think the poem can be quite such a favourite as it used to
-be. Perhaps we are all getting to be such good naturalists that we know
-it is not quite true, for, though Chamæleons change their colours in a
-very wonderful way, they do not go red, white, and blue, in the way
-which the poem makes out.
-
-I think I must tell you a little story about a Chamæleon, though some of
-you may perhaps have heard it before. An old lady once had a pet
-Chamæleon which she was very fond of, and which her manservant, John,
-used to look after. He was very fond of the Chamæleon too, and he used
-to amuse himself by putting it on to different coloured things in his
-room and watching it change colour. Well, one day, the old lady had a
-friend to tea, and she thought she would like to show her the Chamæleon,
-so she rang for John.
-
-"John," she said, "bring in the Chamæleon."
-
-John looked very sorry for himself. "Please ma'am," he said, "I can't."
-
-"Can't?" said his mistress. "Why not?"
-
-John looked still more confused. "Please, ma'am," he said, "he's gone."
-
-"Why, how is that?" said the lady.
-
-"Well, ma'am, I was playing with him, and I put him against my baize
-apron, and he turned green."
-
-"Well?"
-
-"And then I put him against the red tray, ma'am, and he turned red."
-
-"Yes, yes! Of course he would."
-
-"And then I put him against your tartan plaid, ma'am, and--_and he just
-bust hisself_."
-
- [Illustration: YOU CAN SEE HIS EYE LOOKING BACK OVER
- HIS SHOULDER IN THIS PICTURE]
-
-I am afraid that that story is not altogether true either.
-
-I must try to explain to you how a Chamæleon changes colour. Of course
-you all know that there are black men, and brown men, and
-copper-coloured men, and yellow men, and what we call white men; and you
-know, too, that among white men some have much darker skins than others.
-
-Now the colour of people depends a little on the colour of their blood,
-for there is a network of tiny veins in the lower part of their skin,
-but it depends even more on millions of little specks of yellowish and
-brownish paint which lie in the upper part of their skin. A negro may be
-as black as your hat outside, but his blood is red all the same, and he
-looks black because the little specks of paint in the upper part of his
-skin are very dark and hide the red blood behind them. When people
-change colour it is because for one cause or another the colour of their
-blood can be more plainly, or less plainly, seen; and, when this cause
-is taken away, their old colour returns, for the little specks of paint
-have not altered in themselves at all.
-
- [Illustration: YOU CAN SEE HIS HANDS AND FEET WELL IN
- THIS PICTURE]
-
-In Chamæleons, however, and several other creatures, which change colour
-much more than we do, and keep their changed colour for quite a long
-time, the specks of paint lie in the _lower_ part of the skin, and often
-there are numbers of them clustered together as if they had been pressed
-down tight into little bags. These clusters of paint specks have the
-power of branching out like sea anemones, and afterwards pulling
-themselves together again like sea anemones when they are frightened.
-When they are spread out so as to be as large as possible, the Chamæleon
-is dark-coloured; and when they are drawn in so as to be as small as
-possible, the Chamæleon is light coloured; and when, as is really most
-usual, they are spread out in one part of his body and drawn in in
-another, the Chamæleon is piebald. I expect you will be curious to know
-what colour the specks of paint are, and whether they are always the
-same. They are so small that one needs a powerful microscope to see
-them; but, as far as we can tell, they are always brownish or reddish,
-so that the greens and blues which are often to be seen in patches on a
-Chamæleon have to be accounted for in some other way. It would take too
-long to explain the blues and greens to you thoroughly, but I think I
-can give you one little hint about them. You all know what
-mother-of-pearl looks like. If you hold a piece one way it seems a dull
-grey all over, but if you hold it another you see all the colours of the
-rainbow, and you can even make the colours move about it if you handle
-it properly. Now if the colours were paint they would not move about,
-though they might not be so bright in some positions as in others, and
-for the present you must be satisfied to know that a Chamæleon skin,
-besides holding clusters of paint-specks which change their shape, is so
-wonderfully made that it can show mother-of-pearl colours as well.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-A grown-up Chamæleon is usually greenish in the daytime, with brown
-patches on his sides. When he goes to sleep at night he turns
-cream-coloured and his patches become yellowish. A baby Chamæleon is
-snowy white, and doesn't get spotted even when he is angry or excited,
-as a grown-up Chamæleon always does.
-
-Now for the Chamæleon pictures. First you must notice his eyes. He has
-enormous eyeballs, but instead of having two eyelids to each, as we
-have, he has one eyelid to each (it is really made up of two stuck
-together), with a tiny round hole in the centre for his eye to look
-through. This is queer enough, but there is something even queerer about
-a Chamæleon's eyes. He can move either eyeball up or down or sideways,
-but he hardly ever moves both the same way, so that he has quite the
-most wonderful squint in the world, and often keeps one eye looking over
-his shoulder while the other looks straight in front of him.
-
-Next you must look at his long, skinny arms and legs, and especially at
-his hands and feet. Like ourselves he has five fingers or toes on each,
-but they are differently arranged from ours. You must remember, of
-course, that our thumbs are really fingers. On each hand a Chamæleon has
-three thumbs and two fingers, and on each foot he has two great toes and
-three ordinary toes.
-
-
-
-
- THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS
- (DECEMBER)
-
-
- [Illustration:
- Top Row     Nuts gnawed by Meadow Mice
- Second Row   "     "     " Dormice
- Third Row    "     "     " Field Mice]
-
-I am going to end the articles in this book by telling you how you may
-best see for yourselves some of the queer creatures which I have
-photographed, for the real beasties are far, far more interesting than
-any photographs of them can be, and they are not so very difficult to
-see if only you go the right way about it. I think the Winter is as good
-a season as any to begin in, at any rate with the fur-folk, for there is
-sure to be plenty of mud, which is a splendid thing for footprints to
-show up on, and there may be a fall of snow, which will tell you more in
-a day of the coming and goings of your little brothers, than you could
-learn without it in a year.
-
-If you put on your thickest boots and go out into the fields and along
-the hedgerows, after a heavy snowfall, you will find thousands and
-thousands of footprints. Most of these will be the footprints of birds,
-but some, you will see at once, belong to four-footed creatures. I am
-showing you pictures of some of the commonest of these so that you may
-know them the next time you see them. I have left out Bunny-Rabbit on
-purpose, because I think you will be able to find out what his curious
-footprints are like for yourselves, and will remember them better that
-way.
-
- [Illustration: THE WEASEL'S TRAIL]
-
-We will begin with the Weasel's trail in the picture on the opposite
-page. You will see that there are two different looking trails showing,
-but they both belong to the same weasel. The reason they look so
-different is that one set are fresh and the other set are a day old.
-There has been a slight thaw, and this has melted the snow so that the
-oldest trail has fallen in a little. All the trails lead to a woodpile,
-and I used, after the snow had all gone, to go to that woodpile in the
-evening and wait for the weasel to come out, and watch him play, which
-he always did for some time before he started hunting.
-
- [Illustration: WHERE THE WEASEL MET THE MICE
- The mice had made quite a beaten track from one hole to
- another--this you can see at the top of the picture. The
- other tracks are the weasel's, except one, which shows the
- imprint of a mouse-tail]
-
-It was quite exciting to follow that little Weasel's trail in the snow.
-I came to where he had startled a moor-hen and to where he had startled
-a rook, and to where he had had a splendid game chasing mice. I am
-showing you a picture of this, and you will notice at once the line down
-the centre of one of the tracks, which is made by Mousey's tail. Another
-of the pictures shows you two mouse-tracks running to separate
-mouse-holes, which I was very glad to know about, and which I don't
-think I should ever have seen but for the tell-tale snow. A Rat's track
-is much the same, only larger; and a Stoat's track is the same as a
-Weasel's, only larger. A Hedgehog does not often come out in the snow,
-but he does sometimes and leaves a very smudgy track behind him, for he
-drags his fur along the ground.
-
- [Illustration: WHERE THE WEASEL MET THE ROOK
- You can see where the Rook's wing hit the snow]
-
-Snow shows one much more than mud, but, unless it is of just the right
-softness the prints in it are apt to be splodgy, and I don't think you
-ever get so perfect a track in snow as you sometimes do in mud. The
-pictures of the Vixen's and the Otter's footprints will show you what I
-mean. A Vixen's footprints are smaller than a Fox's, and a Fox's
-footprints are smaller than most people think, indeed a Fox is a smaller
-animal than most people think. I have a little wire-haired terrier whose
-footprints are much larger than those of a Vixen. At the same time it is
-not very easy to distinguish a Fox's track from that of a small dog.
-Generally a Dog's claws make their mark as well as the pads, and this
-does not often happen with the Fox; but I think a better way of telling
-the difference is to remember that a Fox's pads are more oval-shaped
-than a Dog's. You will always, I think, be able to tell an Otter's
-footprints (some people call them the Otter's seal) by their size, and
-by their leading to or from the water. Usually the claws can be clearly
-traced and sometimes the webbing of the feet as well. I have never seen
-clean-cut Badger's footprints--all I have met with have been very broad
-and splodgy, more smears than patterns--and I have never seen a Marten's
-trail at all.
-
- [Illustration: TWO MOUSE TRAILS LEADING TO HOLES IN THE
- SNOW]
-
- [Illustration: THE FOX'S FOOTPRINTS]
-
-Footprints tell us a good deal of what is going on about us, and so do
-"runs" in the grass, and "runs" in the hedges. But, of course, there are
-other things to be looked for. Often one finds the remains of beasties'
-meals, nuts for instance. Nuts with clean-cut round holes in them have
-been gnawed by Dormice, nuts with jagged holes by Red Meadow Mice and
-Wood Mice, nuts split clean in half most likely by Squirrels. Otters
-leave half-eaten fish about sometimes, and scattered broken eggshells
-tell you where Stoats have been running the hedgerow. If you notice
-where you find these things and keep your eyes open, you are sure in
-time to see what you are looking for.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- [Illustration: And the last thing that Winnie remembers was
- the Great Green Grasshopper's Wife hurrying the little
- Skipjacks off to bed.]
-
- THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND
- (CHRISTMAS DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"I beg your pardon!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-
-"I think I ought to beg yours," said Winnie politely.
-
-Perhaps, however, you would like me to begin at the very beginning. Very
-well, then; but you must remember that, for most of it, I can only tell
-you what Winnie told me. It all seems to have happened between Christmas
-Eve and Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, our Cricket, who lives in the
-kitchen behind the hot-water pipes, had started chirruping as usual, and
-I had gone into the library, and hunted out an old, old Christmas book
-and started reading to my small friends a story which began with a
-cricket singing against a tea-kettle. Then we had had a snapdragon, and
-then the waits had come round, so everything had been as Christmassy as
-ever it could be. Just as the waits finished Winnie had got into bed and
-snuggled herself up. All this I can vouch for myself, for I was there
-all the time, and I can remember how good the snapdragon was, though I
-did not eat quite so many raisins as one little girl. However, as she
-said afterwards, "Even if I did eat thirty, Father, it was quite worth
-it."
-
-So much for the true part of the tale--now for the magic. Winnie tells
-me that she never went to sleep at all! The waits and the cricket and
-the snapdragon and the kettle were all mixed up in her head, and the
-snapdragon had turned hungry and was trying to snap up the waits, and
-the kettle was puffing like a little traction engine, and in between the
-puffs there was a sad little chirrupy sound which she thought must be
-the cricket. It seemed only kind then that she should slip out of bed,
-listen on the landing, and creep down to the kitchen to see how the
-cricket was getting on. She found him sitting on the hearthstone and
-watching the people in the fire going to church.
-
- [Illustration: WINNIE TELLS ME THAT SHE NEVER WENT TO
- SLEEP AT ALL!]
-
-"I can't attend to you now," he said, "I'm just going out."
-
-Winnie had half expected him to speak, but she was a little frightened
-all the same, and a little curious too.
-
-"Do take me with you," she said. "Where are you going?"
-
-"Where am I going?" said the Cricket in a surprised tone. "Why, it's
-Christmas Eve!"
-
-"Yes, isn't it lovely!" said Winnie; "and to-morrow there'll be
-presents. But where are you going?"
-
-"I'm going to be a wait, of course," said the Cricket. "I've been
-practising all the evening. Listen!"
-
-He ducked his head and lifted up his wings, and a chirrup fluttered out
-of them and ran all round the dresser. It _was_ a chirrup! It wriggled
-in between the plates and dived into the soup-tureen, and climbed the
-tea-cup handles, and danced upon the saucers, until the sour deal
-boards, which had had all the softness scrubbed out of them (and were
-cross-grained to begin with), felt little thrills of pleasure running
-down their backs. Then it climbed up the wall and rattled the
-dish-covers, and at last it died away with a little squeak inside the
-coffee-pot.
-
-"What do you think of that?" said the Cricket triumphantly.
-
-"It's beautiful," said Winnie; "but where are you going?"
-
-"You'll see presently," said the Cricket; "and I wish you wouldn't
-chatter so. You nearly made me forget him."
-
- [Illustration: THE CRICKET WAS SITTING ON THE
- HEARTHSTONE WATCHING THE PEOPLE IN THE FIRE GOING TO
- CHURCH]
-
-"Forget who?" said Winnie.
-
-"Our drummer," said the Cricket. "Keep still--I heard him a minute ago."
-
-There was a long pause--so long that Winnie almost screamed, for there
-was nothing but the clock-tick to listen to.
-
-Then something joined the clock-tick--_One-two-three-four, pit-tip,
-tip-pit, one-two-three-four, pat-tap, tap-pat_ (just like soldiers a
-long way off, as Winnie explained), and presently the drummer himself
-appeared. He was a very small, squat, round-shouldered beetle, and he
-came out of a hole in the beam which ran across the ceiling.
-
- [Illustration: THE PAIR OF THEM DROPPED ... ON TO THE
- EDGE OF THE KITCHEN TABLE]
-
-"What a nuisance it all is!" he yawned. "I was just going off to sleep
-when I heard you. Is there no one else who can drum?"
-
-"No one who can drum like you," said the Cricket, which is far the best
-way to answer these questions.
-
-"Very well," said the Beetle, "but my wife must come too," and the pair
-of them dropped with two little flops on to the edge of the kitchen
-table. Then the clock chimed in--_one-two-three-four_, right away up to
-eleven.
-
-"Shall _I_ come too?" said a mean little oily voice from under the
-coal-scuttle. Winnie could just see the Cockroach's whiskers making
-quivery passes in the air, and she sat down and drew her nightie round
-her feet as tight as ever she could. She was quite relieved to hear the
-Cricket's answer.
-
-"Of course not," he said; "you never played anything in your life."
-
-"It's all the same to me," said the Cockroach. "I've given up those
-silly meadows long ago. Good-night, lunatics!" and he drew his whiskers
-in and disappeared.
-
-"Was that eleven?" said the House Cricket, taking no notice of his
-rudeness. "We've no time to lose then. Come along!"
-
-Winnie climbed up on his back as if it were the most natural thing in
-the world, and the two Beetles climbed up behind her. The drummer Beetle
-started playing at once--_one-two-three-four, pit-tip, tip-pit;
-one-two-three-four, pat-tap, tap-pat_--and the whole four of them sailed
-up the chimney. It was not hot (as Winnie explained), for the fire had
-burnt very low and that was what had beaten the kettle, but it _was_
-sooty, and she remembers quite well longing to see the clean, white snow
-on the roof. The Cricket went up crab-wise--a little jump to one side
-and a little jump to the other; so he took quite a long time to reach
-the chimney-pot, and when he crawled on to the edge of it the snow was
-all gone. ("That was the queerest thing of all, Father," said Winnie
-"there were leaves and flowers and sunshine, and it was just like
-summer.")
-
-"Now hold tight," said the Cricket, "while I unpack my wings."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-This was quite a long business, for the Cricket had to keep moistening
-his fingers, and Winnie and the Beetles had to keep crawling up and down
-his back, so as not to be in the way. At last everything was ready, and
-the Cricket poised himself on the edge of the chimney, spread his wings
-wide apart, and slid into the air. Winnie was just a little frightened
-at first, and she put her head down close to the Cricket's neck and shut
-her eyes and dug her fingers into the chinks of his back; but presently
-she felt that it was no good being frightened, for they were going quite
-smoothly, and the Cricket's wing-covers were high up on either side of
-her, so that she could hardly have fallen off if she had tried to. Soon
-she felt brave enough to raise her head very carefully and look about
-her. The kitchen chimney was some way behind, the great elm on her left,
-and the river close in front. Just before they reached the river the
-Cricket's wings buzzed like blue-bottles, and she felt they were going
-upwards. Then came another long, gentle glide, and the Cricket landed on
-the blackberry hedge at the bottom of the meadow.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"You must all get off here," he said.
-
-Winnie stepped off his back on to a slippery thorn, missed her footing,
-and fell on the top of the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-
-"I beg your pardon!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-
-"I think I ought to beg yours," said Winnie politely--which is where the
-story began some time ago.
-
- [Illustration: "I BEG YOUR PARDON," SAID THE GREAT
- GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S WIFE]
-
-The Great Green Grasshopper's wife was more amused than offended.
-
-"Don't mention it," she said. "I suppose you've come to help us, and I'm
-very glad to see you. It is really most unfortunate, but I couldn't
-possibly let my husband come--the first Christmas Eve he has missed for
-years--but, as I said to him, 'If your leg's frostbitten, you're much
-better in your hole.' Don't you agree with me?"
-
-"Oh, yes, I think so," said Winnie, who felt she must say something.
-
-"Of course we shall miss him very much," said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife, "but if the Field Cricket isn't too nervous, I dare
-say we shall pull through. I see you have brought our drummer with you,
-and here is the Mole Cricket coming up, and the Wood Cricket, and I saw
-the Bush-cheeps a moment ago. Do you really mean to tell me that you
-have never met any of them? Then I must introduce you. This is the Mole
-Cricket. You can't ever mistake him if you have once seen his feet; and
-this is the Field Cricket--you can't mistake a blackamoor like him
-either; and this is the Wood Cricket with the check trowsers; and the
-Bush-cheep always wears a brown tail-coat and a greeny waistcoat. Now
-you all know each other and we must get to work. What do you play?"
-
-Winnie had been getting a little uneasy all this time, for the Crickets
-had been unpacking their instruments and making little scrapes just like
-the band before the pantomime, and she had felt that she would be
-expected to do something too, and had made up her mind as to what she
-would say if she were asked.
-
-"I can play a grass-blade a little," she said.
-
-"Well, there's lots of grass about," said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife. "Let's hear you do it."
-
-So Winnie picked a big blade of grass and jammed it tight between the
-balls of her thumbs and pressed her lips hard against it and began to
-play. The first note sent the Great Green Grasshopper's wife's hind legs
-straight up in the air, turned the Mole Cricket and the House Cricket
-and the Wood Cricket and the Bush-cheeps head-over-heels, and drove the
-Field Cricket into his hole.
-
-"Easy, easy!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "You nearly blew
-my tail off. Can't you play more softly?"
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS THE MOLE CRICKET]
-
-"I'll try," said Winnie.
-
-"Please do," said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "There, I knew
-what would happen. See what you've done."
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS THE FIELD CRICKET]
-
-The Field Cricket had all but disappeared, and there were only two
-little black legs sticking out of his hole.
-
-"It's no use your trying to play in there," said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife. "Nobody will hear you at all."
-
-"I can't help it," said the Field Cricket; "my nerves are completely
-upset."
-
-"See what you've done," said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife again.
-"It will take him twenty minutes to recover."
-
-And she was quite right. For twenty long minutes they had to wait and
-look at one another, and even at the end of that time the Field Cricket
-still seemed very shaken.
-
-"I will do my best now," he said at last, "but I simply _must_ have my
-head hidden." He had backed out of his hole a little way and lifted up
-his wing-covers. Every now and then he chirruped softly.
-
- [Illustration: AND THIS IS THE WOOD CRICKET]
-
-"Well, it's better than nothing," said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife, "and you certainly have some excuse this time. Now let's begin."
-She climbed a little higher in the hedge, tapped sharply with one hind
-leg, and looked about her.
-
-"Are you all ready?" she said. "Drums?"
-
-"Here!" said the Beetles.
-
-"First violin?"
-
-"Here!" said the Field Cricket.
-
-"Second violin?"
-
-"Here!" said the House Cricket.
-
-"Viola?"
-
-"Here!" said the Wood Cricket.
-
-"'Cello?"
-
-"Here!" said the Mole Cricket.
-
-"Flutes?"
-
-"Here!" said the Bush-cheeps.
-
-"Grass-blade?"
-
-"Here!" said Winnie, screwing her lips up very tight.
-
-"Good!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife, and she reared herself
-up backwards and began to beat time with her hind legs.
-
-"Two bars first," she said. "Now!"
-
-At the third bar they all came in very fairly together, but before they
-had played half a minute the Great Green Grasshopper's wife stopped
-short.
-
-("It was really worse than the real waits," Winnie explained. "It was
-like a million little glass stoppers being squeaked out of bottles--and
-they didn't seem to mind the time a bit.")
-
-The Great Green Grasshopper's wife looked at Winnie quite severely.
-
-"I asked you to play softly," she said; "you're drowning the whole band."
-
- [Illustration: THE FIRST NOTE SENT THE GREAT GREEN
- GRASSHOPPER'S WIFE'S HIND LEGS STRAIGHT UP IN THE AIR]
-
-"I _can't_ play more softly than that," said Winnie.
-
-"Well, there's only one thing to be done then," said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife. "I must hunt up the Skipjacks."
-
-The Skipjacks are the little grasshoppers who live in the fields, and it
-takes quite a number of them to play a tune that you can hear.
-
- [Illustration: HE HAD BACKED OUT OF HIS HOLE A LITTLE
- WAY AND LIFTED UP HIS WING-COVERS]
-
-"Wait for me here," said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife; "I sha'n't
-be long!" And she leapt like a jump-jim-crow and landed three yards
-clear of the hedge.
-
-She really was some time away, but at last she reappeared driving the
-Skipjacks in front of her.
-
-"It is so troublesome to keep them straight," she explained; "the little
-idiots! Look at them."
-
- [Illustration: THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S WIFE
- REARED HERSELF UP BACKWARDS AND BEGAN TO BEAT TIME WITH HER
- HIND LEGS]
-
-They certainly were a queer flock to manage, for they could only move by
-jumps, and when they jumped even they themselves had no idea of where
-they were jumping to. However, by driving them in front of her she
-managed to keep a few of them together, and at last she got them into
-their places.
-
-"You must fiddle," she said, "as you never fiddled before. The band
-shall _not_ be beaten by a grass-blade. Now altogether--_one, two,
-three, four_!"
-
-It was really much better that time, and though Winnie could not pick up
-the tune, everybody else seemed quite pleased with themselves.
-
-"_That's_ better!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "Now again!"
-
-But before the words were out of her mouth the great hall clock chimed
-in, _Ting--Ting--Ting--Ting_----
-
-"Midnight!" screamed the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "What _will_
-become of us?"
-
-_Ting--Ting--Ting--Ting_----
-
-"It's fast!" cried Winnie: "I know it's fast. I put it on myself for
-getting up tomorrow."
-
-"Are you quite sure?" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-
-"Quite sure," declared Winnie; "it's five minutes fast at least."
-
-"That's a great relief to my mind," said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife; "but, of course, we must stop at once."
-
-Indeed, the Crickets were already packing up their instruments, and the
-last thing that Winnie remembers was the Great Green Grasshopper's wife
-hurrying the little Skipjacks off to bed.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- THE PYGMY SHREW
- (BOXING-DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Few know him and the careless eye may never see him. He is so
-small,--that four of him just stop a mouse-hole; so light,--that ten of
-him just tilt an ounce. Yet, if you search the files, you find him
-eminent. The Pygmy Shrew in Cornwall! The Pygmy Shrew in Kent!! The
-Pygmy Shrew in Rutlandshire!!!
-
-Thus fame is garlanded round mystery.
-
-Man's kingdom is brick-built and parchment guarded. The beasties have a
-nobler heritage. Fence your broad acres as you please, yet they shall
-quietly share them, paying you naught, and taking what they will. Water
-and air and land are theirs by prior, nay primeval, right. So shall you
-bend before their quality, and, for their lineage, you shall respect
-them.
-
-Something had brushed across the Pygmy's nose. He shook off three days'
-sleep in three half-seconds. Where was his tail? Sleeping, he swings it
-up across his face, and gathers all four feet within its shelter. His
-tail was there, but in its waking-place, behind him. Then something must
-have moved it. He stretched his neck and sniffed, long wheezy sniffs
-which ended in a shiver; then he peered down the shaft. He jerked back
-to avoid an avalanche--a blinding dust-cloud, a rattle of small stones,
-and, in the midst, two common shrews close locked.
-
-But I go on too fast.
-
-The stump is close against the rookery-fence. It is a stump of quality,
-a residential stump, a maze of winding roots and secret chambers,
-wherein field-folk may live without acquaintance. There is a fellow to
-it in the meadow, another fronts the rabbit mound, and all three hold
-like tenants.
-
-The woodmouse first, round-eyed and debonair; then the bank-vole, he who
-is half a mouse, with chestnut coat, broad ear and estimable tail;
-lastly the ranny-noses; the common shrew--a velvet-coated
-pepper-tempered gallant; the Pygmy, who is common shrew refined--purple
-and orange ripple in his fur, and him my Lady Sunshine loves the best of
-all.
-
- [Illustration: THE WOODMOUSE FIRST, ROUND-EYED AND
- DEBONAIR]
-
-All live together, yet apart, for, under ground, the stumps are
-intricate. The roots twist right and left and back upon themselves, and,
-over and beneath them, are the runs. Most are blind alleys, but a few
-creep on, and strike the upper air. The mice and voles reserve the
-lowest depths; they must be near the water; moreover they can tunnel
-where they will. The common shrews live higher, scratch two-inch levels
-where the rootlets aid them, and trust to their quick ears. The Pygmy
-takes what stouter beasties leave; and that is how the Pygmy's tail was
-moved--his sleeping-hole, the mould of some long-fallen stone, abutted
-on the shaft.
-
-That two shrews should be fighting was quite usual. Shrews fight to keep
-their limbs in trim; they fight in play; they fight in deadly earnest. A
-veteran shrew is scarred in every part of him; great scars like
-thumbmarks, where new growth of fur has failed to draw up level with the
-old.
-
-Yet even shrews need open ground to fight on. The Pygmy waited till the
-dust had cleared, then peered into the darkness. The scuffling of them
-could be plainly heard; and, sharp above it, rose their vicious war
-scream. The Pygmy knew what that meant--a bolt for upper air and honest
-fighting. He crouched back prudently. They rattled past once more in
-quick succession, the foremost gibbering his distress, the hindmost
-dumb. But this was dubious measure of their quality, for, where there is
-bare tunnel-room for one, one needs must be in front, and, then, his
-only weapon is his voice.
-
- [Illustration: HE TOOK THE RIGHT-HAND SURFACE-RUN]
-
-The Pygmy sprang up after them. He is the burrows' jackal, and takes an
-interest in serious fights. Once on the level ground he paused, made
-three small casts, then took the right-hand surface-run.
-
-He was quite right; the combatants had passed that way. It was a zigzag
-run, but unimpeded. A drooping grass-stem tangle formed its roof, and,
-through long use, its sides were brown and withered, as though some
-noxious snake had glided through, and poisoned every growing blade it
-touched. The Pygmy knew it end to end, and knew that, where it broke,
-close to the elm, there was a moss-grown clearing. So he took matters
-quietly, and, lingering as the fancy took him, had supped before he
-reached the fighting-ground. The common shrews were feinting for an
-opening. He knew them both by sight. One, a brown-coated, thick-set
-scaramouch was neighbour to him in the stump. The other was a
-meadow-shrew, of lighter build and colour, but longer and full match in
-weight. The Pygmy rubbed his nose between his paws--a pretty fight was
-promised.
-
- [Illustration: HE COULD SEE AS WELL AS HEAR]
-
-And others seemed to have got wind of it. The grass-stems flicking to
-and fro betrayed them. On every side he heard short, fluttery
-mouse-steps. Above he caught shrill squeaks and whimperings; a bat was
-busy with the filmy moths. Below the ground seemed shivery--that was the
-mole. The Pygmy heard and scented him. He crawled discreetly up the
-trunk, and so could see as well as hear. In the green tangle round were
-flitting specks--the voles and mice assembling in hot haste. From these
-his eye passed to the combatants. The grey shrew's ear was torn, and
-from it hung one drop of blood. This was the lodestone.
-
- [Illustration: HIS RIVAL, FEINTING, FLICKED HIS TAIL
- TOO FAR, AND, IN A TWINKLE, IT WAS SEIZED]
-
-Up from a moss-clump shot a woodmouse nose, and, at the back of it, two
-round black eyes looked murder. The Pygmy caught the chatter-grince of
-teeth; the bat still threaded needle-notes among the leaves; the leaves
-themselves were whispering; but clear above these short, crabbed,
-fretful sounds, he heard the steady rumble of the mole. The thing
-perplexed him. Could the expectant ring of mice be deaf? The pair that
-held the stage were too absorbed to notice anything.
-
- [Illustration: THE GREY SHREW LEANT AGAINST THE TRUNK AND PANTED
- The brown shrew lay half sideways fronting him]
-
-It was the brown shrew who got home the first. His rival, feinting,
-flicked his tail too far, and, in a twinkle, it was seized. The grey
-shrew swung himself upon his back, and kicked with all four paws. But
-this was waste of strength. The shrewmouse has forked teeth, teeth that
-will hold a slippery rounded beetle, much more a soft square tail. So
-with necessity the spur of valour, he twisted round and nipped the brown
-shrew's foot. Both straightway bit their hardest; the twinge made both
-give way. They toppled backwards squealing. The grey shrew leant against
-the trunk and panted; the brown shrew lay half sideways fronting him,
-and, on all sides, the ring broke into chatterings. The Pygmy, trembling
-with delight, screamed out encouragement, but no one heard _his_
-screams. The bat dived headlong from the leaves, skimmed in between them
-and shot up once more. The woodmouse crept two paces forward, then
-backed abruptly, for they were at grips. Each nipped a loose flap of the
-other's skin, and, bracing all four feet, tugged at its prize. They
-tugged until they toppled sideways; then with claws fastened in each
-other's fur, with tangled tails and rounded straining bodies, commenced
-to spin.
-
- [Illustration: WITH TANGLED TAILS AND ROUNDED STRAINING
- BODIES, COMMENCED TO SPIN]
-
-That is the way of shrewmice, much pother and slight wounds. Their
-fights are seldom mortal. Rather, they die for want of fighting. Their
-valiant souls misfit them.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-So this hot-blooded, strenuous pair spun as one living ball across the
-ring, over and over, twist and twirl, upside and down, faster and
-faster, until the spin itself released them. Then they sat back from one
-another and wobbled like spent tops.
-
- [Illustration]
-
- [Illustration]
-
- [Illustration: THEN THEY LAY HEAD TO TAIL, AND TAIL TO
- HEAD]
-
-The third round started dully. The brown shrew, shaken with exertion,
-lay on his back the better to refresh himself. The grey shrew, just as
-weary, crept to an eminence above and eyed him wickedly. The ring was
-all impatience.
-
-Both soon revived.
-
- [Illustration: THE FIELD-VOLES ON THE SKIRTS OF IT
- COULD ONLY SEE BETWEEN THEIR BETTERS' EARS]
-
-The brown shrew twisted corkscrew-wise, and landed arched upon his toe
-points. The grey shrew shot beneath him like a whiplash. Then they lay
-head to tail, and tail to head. The ring drew closer. The field-voles on
-the skirts of it could only see between their betters' ears. The bat
-came to a halt and stared. The Pygmy climbed two inches up, and was
-rewarded. For now both combatants saw red.
-
- [Illustration: THE BAT CAME TO A HALT AND STARED]
-
-They hurled themselves at random, they bit at random, they bucked and
-somersaulted, they spun entwined in loops and twists, in double-knotted
-tangles, in sinuous figures of eight. Now one was on his back and now
-the other--shrewmice reck little which way up they fight. Now they sped
-screaming up the trunk and all but reached the Pygmy; now they dropped
-earthward with twin thud, and grazed a red vole's nose. So without pause
-or respite. They tore and scratched and gripped and pulled and wrenched
-and tugged and jumped and squealed until----it was an earthquake, a
-rounded dull upheaval, a split and crackle of the moss, a sputter of dry
-dust, and, in the midst, like some queer fungus growth, the mole's red
-nose.
-
- [Illustration: THE PYGMY CLIMBED TWO INCHES UP]
-
-"Flick!" went a woodmouse tail, betokening danger. The amphitheatre
-emptied in a moment; voles helter-skelter into cover, bat loose into the
-sky. The Pygmy tumbled earthwards, shot forward, paused, whisked up
-again, and crept behind a flake of bark.
-
- [Illustration: NOW ONE WAS ON HIS BACK AND NOW THE
- OTHER]
-
-The two shrews lay amazed upon their backs, and in between them wagged
-the intruding nose.
-
-Slowly it lengthened. Two naked paddle-feet passed on the surface, and,
-like some clumsy fish that quits its element, the mole plunged into air.
-
-He missed both shrews, who, dashing right and left of him, entangled him
-in double-minded purpose. Rested the Pygmy, shrunk to a rigid wisp of
-apprehension, ear-straining, muscle-tautened, behind a flimsy screen of
-bark.
-
-The mole lurched slowly forward, swaying his noddle-head from side to
-side, nosing each inch of ground. Blood had enticed him upwards, and
-blood he meant to taste. It seemed as though short measure must content
-him--a smear upon a grass stem, a drop upon a pebble. But presently his
-nose flung up; on either side of it the velvet starred, leaving two
-loop-holes for his pin-head eyes; he snuffed and peered about him; his
-brush-tail jerked and quivered; a snarl laid bare his teeth; and then,
-his instinct mastering circumstance, he charged, with swift alternate
-strokes, straight at the Pygmy's shelter. Had his eye seen? Had his nose
-smelt? At least he had a visible allurement--a half inch of the Pygmy's
-tail. The Pygmy curled it promptly, but, even as it moved, the mole was
-thundering at the bark. The Pygmy squeezed himself a half inch further,
-and this half inch meant life. The mole had bored his snout into the
-breach, and by a forward wriggle brought his teeth to bear.
-
- [Illustration: THE MOLE PLUNGED INTO THE AIR]
-
-The outworks broke and crumbled like a biscuit. His nose attained the
-citadel itself, but here the assault was checked. Strain as he would he
-could not get fair tooth-hold, for, working upwards in cramped quarters,
-he spent his strength in struggling for a purchase.
-
-Only exhaustion stays the hunting mole, and such exhaustion ends in
-death. This mole was not exhausted yet.
-
-He screwed his nose unceasingly, forced his teeth forward line by line,
-and ground the bark to powder; snatched out his head for air, and thrust
-his hand in place of it; snatched back his hand and used his jaws once
-more. Harder and harder still he worked, closer and closer still he
-drew, until one claw touched fur.
-
-It was a graze, a skin scrape; the fur shrank out of reach, but the mere
-contact goaded him to frenzy.
-
-He squirmed and writhed and strained until, by muscle strength alone, he
-forced his head and shoulders through the gap. His nose now touched his
-quarry, his hands were squared beneath his chin, palms back, and thus,
-in earth, he might have tunnelled far. But the stiff shell of bark was
-obdurate.
-
-The white owl helped him out. She caught him at the bottom of her swoop,
-and loosed him high up on the elm-tree. Here the white owlets welcomed
-him.
-
-Before she turned, the Pygmy had reached home.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-      *      *      *      *      *      *
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-Apparent typographical errors have been corrected.
-
-Inconsistencies in the use of hyphens have been retained.
-
-
-
-***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS***
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-<body>
-<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Book of Nimble Beasts, by Douglas English,
-Illustrated by Douglas English</h1>
-<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
-and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
-restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
-under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
-eBook or online at <a
-href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>.  If you are not
-located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the
-country where you are located before using this ebook.</p>
-<p>Title: A Book of Nimble Beasts</p>
-<p>       Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and "Those Sort of People"</p>
-<p>Author: Douglas English</p>
-<p>Release Date: July 13, 2017  [eBook #55097]</p>
-<p>Language: English</p>
-<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
-<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS***</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<h4>E-text prepared by MFR, Chris Pinfield,<br />
-    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
-    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
-    from page images generously made available by<br />
-    Internet Archive<br />
-    (<a href="https://archive.org">https://archive.org</a>)</h4>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
-  <tr>
-    <td valign="top">
-      Note:
-    </td>
-    <td>
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive. See
-      <a href="https://archive.org/details/bookofnimblebeas00engliala">
-      https://archive.org/details/bookofnimblebeas00engliala</a>
-    </td>
-  </tr>
-</table>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr class="full" />
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-
-<p class="center large">A BOOK OF<br />NIMBLE BEASTS</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 338px;">
-  <img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="338" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">He held himself with an air, his body
-    arched, one broad white pad uplifted, his tail curved
-    decorously.&mdash;<span class="smcap">In Weasel Wood.</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="front">
-
- <h1>A BOOK OF<br />
-     NIMBLE BEASTS</h1>
-
- <p class="small">BUNNY RABBIT, SQUIRREL, TOAD,<br />
- AND "THOSE SORT OF PEOPLE"</p>
-
- <p>BY<br />
- <span class="large">DOUGLAS ENGLISH</span><br />
- <span class="small">FELLOW AND MEDALIST OF THE ROYAL<br />
- PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY</span></p>
-
- <p>WITH OVER 200 ILLUSTRATIONS<br />
- FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIVING<br />
- ANIMALS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR</p>
-
- <p>London<br />
- <span class="large">EVELEIGH NASH &amp; GRAYSON LTD.</span><br />
- 148 Strand<br />
- <span class="small">1922</span></p>
-
- <p class="x-small"><span class="smcap">Printed by</span><br />
- WOODS &amp; SONS, LTD.,<br />
- <span class="smcap">338-340, Upper Street,<br />
- London, N. 1</span>.</p>
-
- <p class="large">IN MEMORY<br />
- C.&nbsp;J.&nbsp;E.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-right">
-  <img src="images/005.jpg" width="125" height="107" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
-
-<table id="toc" summary="ToC">
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month"></td>
- <td class="pag"><span class="x-small">PAGE</span></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">JANUARY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">SOMETHING ABOUT BATS</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">FEBRUARY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">VALENTINE'S DAY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">MARCH</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">ANIMALS' NESTS</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">APRIL</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_89">89</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">LADY DAY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">BUNNY RABBIT</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">MAY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">JUNE</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">TWO WONDERFUL WASPS</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">MIDSUMMER DAY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">SPINIPES THE SAND-WASP</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">JULY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">PICTURES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">AUGUST</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">LAMMAS DAY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">IN WEASEL WOOD</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_187">187</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">SEPTEMBER</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING AND<br />WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">OCTOBER</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">THE BEASTIES' BED-TIME</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">MICHAELMAS DAY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">NOVEMBER</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">DECEMBER</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">CHRISTMAS DAY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="month">BOXING-DAY</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">THE PYGMY SHREW</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_301">301</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
-
-<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR</h3>
-
-<table id="toic" summary="ToIc">
-
-<tr>
- <td class="group"></td>
- <td class="pag"></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="group">IN WEASEL WOOD</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He held himself with an air, his body arched, one broad
-     white pad uplifted, his tail curved decorously</td>
- <td class="pag"><i>Frontispiece</i></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="group">A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Green Toad slowly stretched himself. "THAT?"
-     said he, "that's not French"</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">At the fifth stone&mdash;a bulky slanting one&mdash;he sighted the
-     French Frog</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="group">SPINIPES, THE SAND WASP</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">An instant's pause to shift her grip, and she had pushed
-     the grub within the entrance</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"Take that&mdash;and that&mdash;and That," said Spinipes, and
-     drove her sharp Sting home</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td class="group">THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">And the last thing Winnie remembers was the Great
-     Green Grasshopper's Wife hurrying the little Skipjacks
-     off to bed</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_279">279</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT</h3>
-
-<table id="toit" summary="ToIt">
-
-<tr>
- <td class="group"></td>
- <td class="pag"></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">SOMETHING ABOUT BATS</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Natterer's Bat</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Lesser Horseshoe Bat</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Noctule</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Noctule</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Lesser Horseshoe Bat going to sleep</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_22">22</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Greater Horseshoe</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Long-eared Bat</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Greater Horseshoe Bat hanging head downwards</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Pipistrelle</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">SOMETHING ABOUT TADOLES</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Toad's Spawn</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Frog's Spawn floating on the water</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Frog's Spawn Quite Fresh</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Frog's Spawn beginning to Grow</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Frog's Spawn showing Young Tadpoles, &amp;c.</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Tadpoles getting like Frogs</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Tadpoles full grown</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Passable</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">His Little Eyes were Starting from their Sockets</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Water Rat</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Salamander</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Natterjack</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Have you Seen this Trick before</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The French Frog</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"I see a Natterjack"</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"Fetch him," thundered the King Toad</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Five Times He Tried</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Shrew Mouse</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He Bristled with Apologies</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Green Toad</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">His Inside was Red Hot</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He Lay as He had Fallen</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"Ducks," whispered Bombinatrix</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">ANIMALS' NESTS</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Four Moles' Nests Together</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Squirrel</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_79">79</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Harvest Mouse Nest</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Dormouse</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">A Dormouse's Nursery Nest</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Harvest Mouse</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Stag-Beetle</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Stag-Beetle that I ran over</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Female Stag-Beetle</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Great Water Beetle</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_96">96</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Musk Beetle</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Cockchafer</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Churchyard Beetle</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_99">99</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">BUNNY RABBIT</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Landed on his Back six feet below</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_103">103</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">It wasn't Mother after all</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He Combed his Ears Out</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_106">106</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He Watched and Heard the Awakening of the Wood</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_108">108</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Berus the Adder</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Lay full length, eyes closed</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_113">113</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Bunny Rabbit Watched him out of Sight</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Brimstone Butterfly</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_118">118</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Red Admiral</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Purple Emperor</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Clifden Blue</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Swallow Tail Butterfly</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_122">122</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Black Pepper Moth</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Silver-washed Fritillary</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">TWO WONDERFUL WASPS</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Spinipes' burrow opened up</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Spinipes Bringing up a Grub</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_129">129</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Spinipes Grub Feeding</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Cocoon which Spinipes' Grubs make</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Little Beetle that Caterpillars turn into</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Before and After the Thunderstorm</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_135">135</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Crabro</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Crabro Looking out of her hole</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">How the Cocoons Looked</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">One of the Crabro's Stores of Blue-Bottles</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">What the piece of Elm-bough looked like</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">One of the Cocoons of Crabro in Elm-bough</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">SPINIPES, THE SAND-WASP</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Sand Cliff splits the Old Gravel-Pit in two</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">First the Wild Bees, Red King, Black Queen</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Down Dropped a Red King</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_147">147</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"In Sand, Ma'am, in Sand"</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"Well, call me when it comes"</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Spinipes commenced to Dig in Earnest</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"Good Hunting, Sister!" said the Ophion Fly</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_153">153</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Rose Chafer</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Out flew the Bees</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Hour after Hour she Toiled</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_158">158</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Lowest Chamber of the Shaft now held a precious thing</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_159">159</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">A Flabby, Green, Blackheaded Grub</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Twelve Grubs in all she brought</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_163">163</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">She Sank five other Curving Shafts</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">PICTURES ON BUTTER-FLIES' WINGS</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Magpie Moth</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Emperor Moth</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_173">173</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Elephant Hawk Moth's Caterpillar</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_174">174</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Elephant Hawk Moth showing his Trunk</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Peacock Butterfly</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Mother Shipton Moth</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Common Shrewmouse</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Water Shrewmouse</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Pygmy Shrewmouse</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">How the Pygmy Coils Himself Up to Sleep</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_185">185</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">IN WEASEL WOOD</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Again the Fox Cub was Puzzled</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_188">188</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He Sank from his Hindquarters forward</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_191">191</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Stoat Tiptoed Towards Him</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"My Plumed Tail! you wait till Squirrel grows"</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Marten has seen you</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"Perhaps you will be good enough to get higher up the tree"</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_201">201</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">It was another Badger</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">She came out full charge</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_209">209</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">And in due course of time, his wife</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Lobster Moth Caterpillar</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Spider on the Bramble Blossom</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_217">217</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Dragon in the Water-weed</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Lobster Moth Caterpillar, Angry</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Ichneumon Fly</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Puss Moth Caterpillar</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_223">223</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Giant Wood Wasp</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">THE BEASTIES' BEDTIME</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Queen Wasp in her Winter Sleep</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Bill the Lizard</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Toadums</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_229">229</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Round Eye the Dormouse</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Dormouse in his Winter Sleep</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_231">231</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Prickles the Hedge Pig</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Hedge Pig in his Winter Sleep</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_234">234</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Lesser Horseshoe Bat Asleep</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Bartimæus</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He Headed Straight for the Water</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_239">239</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Bank Rose Steeply Over Him</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Only one grass-blade stirred, but Tatters saw it</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_246">246</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Harvest Mouse stood up full length</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_253">253</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_254">254</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">His fortress, his own fortress had been breached</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">You can see his eye looking back over his shoulder</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">You can see his hands and feet</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Chamæleon</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_267">267</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Nuts Gnawed by Mice</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Weasel's Trail</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Where the Weasel met the Mice</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_272">272</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Where the Weasel met the Rook</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_274">274</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Two Mouse Trails</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Fox's Footprints</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_276">276</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">She Never went to Sleep at all</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_281">281</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Cricket was Sitting on the Hearthstone</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The pair of them dropped</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">"I beg your pardon," said the Grasshopper's Wife</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_288">288</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Mole Cricket</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_291">291</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Field Cricket</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Wood Cricket</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_293">293</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The First Note sent the Grasshopper's Wife's hind legs straight up</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_295">295</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He had backed out of his hole</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_296">296</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Grasshopper's Wife reared herself up</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-<tr>
- <td colspan="2" class="group">THE PYGMY SHREW</td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Woodmouse First</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He took the Right-hand Surface run</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">He could now see and hear as well</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">His rival feinting, flicked his tail</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_308">308</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Grey Shrew Leant against the Trunk</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_309">309</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">With Tangled Tails and Rounded Straining Bodies</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_310">310</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">There they lay head to tail</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_311">311</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Field Voles</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Bat came to a halt and stared</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_313">313</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Pygmy climbed two inches up</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_314">314</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">Now one was on his back, now the other</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_315">315</a></td>
-</tr>
-<tr>
- <td class="title">The Mole plunged into the air</td>
- <td class="pag"><a href="#Page_317">317</a></td>
-</tr>
-
-</table>
-
-<h2>PUBLISHER'S NOTE</h2>
-
-<div class="small">
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">The</span>
-publisher may, perhaps, be allowed to call the
-reader's attention to the illustrations&mdash;particularly to
-the two of the Sand-Wasps, reproduced in colour.
-The difficulties of photographing from wild life active creatures
-of such small dimensions as hymenopterous insects
-are very great from an optical standpoint. The picture of
-Spinipes bringing the beetle grub to her tube took several
-years to accomplish successfully, and the strain involved
-by the conditions, a blazing June sun on the operator's
-back, an uncertain foothold, and the necessity of keeping
-the attention riveted for hours on one particular patch of
-sunlit sand, was exceptional. It is of course possible,
-probable even, that with the introduction of an improved
-lens system, which will enable fast exposures to be made
-at very short range on minute moving objects, this particular
-picture may be repeated and improved upon. But
-the odds against the second picture on the same page,
-that of Spinipes stinging the jewel-fly, <i>ever</i> being repeated,
-are enormous. It will be necessary in order to secure
-the repetition of such a picture, first, that the camera
-shall be focussed on one out of a score of tubes; second,
-that the parasitic jewel-fly shall enter that particular tube;
-third, that the Owner Wasp shall return while the jewel-fly
-is below; fourth, that the Owner Wasp shall pull the
-jewel-fly to the surface; fifth, that the jewel-fly shall
-cling to the rim of the tube; sixth, that the Wasp shall
-sting it in this position&mdash;it will be noticed that the sting
-is directed at the junction of the thorax and abdomen;
-seventh, that the observer shall be ready to expose his
-plate at the exact psychological moment; and eighth,
-that he shall succeed in doing so. The first six conditions
-were, in Mr. English's case, fulfilled by chance.
-As regards the seventh he was unready. He was, in fact,
-some feet below his camera. But chance befriended him
-still further.</p>
-
-<p>He caught the jewel-fly's glint, and caught the shadow
-of the returning Wasp. He flung his arm up, grabbed
-the dangling bulb, and pressed at random. This action
-dragged the camera from its moorings&mdash;to fix a camera
-on a Sand Cliff's side is no slight task&mdash;and it fell twelve
-feet down. Yet it had done its work and made the
-picture.</p>
-
-<p>There are a score of pictures in this book, which
-are believed to be unique, not only by reason of
-the rarity of their subjects, but also by reason of the fact
-that they are the <i>only</i> pictures of such subjects, good or
-bad, in existence. The most remarkable among them
-is the picture of Spinipes stinging the jewel-fly.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">I know</span>
-a Boy Scout who has never
-seen a weasel. Many weasels, I fancy,
-must have seen that Boy Scout.</p>
-
-<p>And I know a Girl who has never seen a
-Harvest Mouse, but who might have, often.</p>
-
-<p>There may be other boys and girls like
-these. There may be grown-ups also.</p>
-
-<p>It is for them that I have written this book.
-It is to them that I offer its pictures.</p>
-
-<p>I would lead them (with hushed voices and
-quiet feet) into God's Under-World; a World
-of queer small happenings; of sparkling eyes
-and vanishing tails; a whispering, rustling
-World.</p>
-
-<p>I would have them, whatever their age
-be, approach this World as children. For
-children's eyes are closest to the ground.</p>
-
-<div class="foot">
-<div class="right0 smcap">Douglas English</div>
-<div class="left1 smcap small">Hawley, Dartford, 1910</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">{17}</a></div>
-
- <h2>SOMETHING ABOUT BATS<br />
- <small>(JANUARY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/017.jpg" width="200" height="321" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Natterer's Bat</span><br />
-    The best-looking Bat in Britain</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">You</span>
-must all, I think, have seen Bats flying, or, at any rate, pictures
-of Bats flying, and you must all know that they are night, or twilight,
-beasties, though some of our English kinds fly about in broad daylight
-more often than most people think. But do you all know that they are the
-only four-footed creatures that <i>really</i> fly&mdash;for
-they are four-footed though they don't look it;
-and do you all know that there are, probably,
-more different kinds of Bats in England
-than there are different kinds of any
-other beastie; and that they are the very
-ugliest of British Beasties, taking them
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">{18}</a></span>
-altogether; and that they all have very small
-eyes&mdash;which is a queer thing for twilight
-beasties to have; owls, of course, and dormice
-have very big eyes&mdash;and that they have
-either very wonderful ears, or very wonderful
-noses, but not both together? If you don't
-know all this, perhaps you would like to hear
-more.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/019.jpg" width="200" height="245" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Lesser Horseshoe Bat</span><br />
-    You can see his nose-leaf, shaped like a horseshoe, very
-    well in this picture. Both the Greater and Lesser Horseshoe
-    Bats are wonderfully neat fliers</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>We had better, I think, begin with a Bat's
-wings, for, when we have learnt something
-about these, we may perhaps get some notion
-as to why a Bat is more clever in the air than
-a bird, and far, far more clever than a flying
-machine, worked by a human brain, is at
-present. The reason why a Bat is a cleverer,
-I don't mean a stronger, flier than a bird, is
-a reason which you young people will find to
-be a very common one, if ever you try your
-hand at guessing Mother Nature's riddles.
-It is simply this&mdash;that <i>he has to be</i>. A Bat
-has to catch his food, tiny food mostly, in the
-air, and he has to catch it in a bad light, and,
-as far as we can tell, though we cannot be
-sure of this, his eyesight is not as good as,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">{19}</a></span>
-say, a swallow's eyesight. This means that he has had to pick up a
-wonderful quickness in checking his own flight, and in turning sharp in
-the air, almost head over heels
-sometimes, and in diving, and in soaring up
-again. To do all these things well he has
-had to be built in a very special way, and I
-will try to explain to you how he has been
-built by comparing a Bat with one of ourselves,
-for you must remember that a Bat
-belongs to the same great order of living
-creatures as we do, and that a Bat is much
-more like a human being than a bird is.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/020.jpg" width="200" height="243" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Noctule</span><br />
-    You can see one earlet quite plainly, and his eye "starting
-    out of his head"</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Let us fancy, then, a small boy being
-turned into a Bat. The first thing that
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">{20}</a></span>
-would have to happen would be that his legs
-would have to be bent at the knees, and
-shrunk until they were as thin as sticks. Then they would have to be
-twisted right and left until the knee-caps faced the wrong way about.
-His arms would have to be
-shrunk too, and his fore-arms would have to be
-stretched until they were twice their natural
-length, and his middle-fingers would have to
-be about a yard long, and his other fingers
-nearly a yard long also. His thumb might be
-left as it was, but it would have to have a strong
-claw at the end of it. In between his fingers,
-and joining his arms to his body, and stretching
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">{21}</a></span>
-down to his legs, and joining his legs
-together, there would have to be a web of
-skin, and then, perhaps, if his chest was
-brought well forward like a pigeon's, and his
-head pressed well back until it stopped
-between his shoulders, he might, if his muscles
-were strong enough, and the whole of him
-was light enough, be able to fly.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/021.jpg" width="500" height="496" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Noctule</span><br />
-    One of our largest Bats. He is sometimes more than a foot
-    across the wings, and his brown fur is as velvety as a
-    Mole's&mdash;when he feels quite well</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/022.jpg" width="200" height="374" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Lesser Horseshoe Bat</span><br />
-    He is hanging head downwards, and beginning to wrap himself
-    up in his wings before going to sleep</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Now about a Bat's eyes. I have already told
-you that these are very small&mdash;at least they
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">{22}</a></span>
-look very small in our English Bats&mdash;and that it does not seem likely
-that Bats possess the wonderful eyesight, which one would expect them to
-have. In some cases the eyes are so curiously placed in the head that
-the Bat can hardly be able to see straight in front of him at all. In
-the Leaf-nosed Bats, for
-instance, you can only just see the Bat's eyes
-when you look at him full face, because his
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">{23}</a></span>
-leaf-nose all but hides them&mdash;you can see
-what I mean from the pictures&mdash;and in the
-case of one rare little bat, the Barbastelle, the
-eyes are set so far back that part of the ear
-comes round them like a horse's blinkers;
-and one can hardly imagine his being able to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">{24}</a></span>
-see much sideways, even if he can see quite
-well in front. There is just one little thing,
-however, which I have noticed in a large Bat
-called the Noctule, and this may mean that
-Bats have better eyesight than one would at
-first suppose. The Noctule can make his own eyes "start out of his
-head," until they seem to be almost twice as large as usual. If all Bats
-can do this it is quite likely that very few people have seen their eyes
-properly at all; that
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">{25}</a></span>
-is, have seen them as they really appear, when
-the Bats are chasing moths in the twilight.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 345px;">
-  <img src="images/023.jpg" width="345" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">THE GREATER HORSESHOE&mdash;A PIG THAT <i>DOES</i> FLY</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/025.jpg" width="500" height="386" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Long-eared Bat</span><br />
-    His ears are more than twice as long as his head, and
-    beautifully pink and transparent when seen in the right
-    light</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/024.jpg" width="200" height="334" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Greater Horseshoe Bat</span><br />
-    Hanging head downwards. Except when he is flying he always
-    carries his tail cocked up over his back, as you see it.</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>I think I will leave the pictures to show
-you the ugliness of Bats generally, though I
-have purposely put one picture in to show
-you that all Bats are not ugly&mdash;for I am sure
-you will agree with me that the little white-fronted
-Natterer's Bat, has quite a pretty face.
-I must tell you a little more, though, about
-Bats' ears and noses.</p>
-
-<p>When we were turning, in imagination,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">{26}</a></span>
-our small boy into a Bat, we did not trouble
-ourselves about his ears and nose, but we
-ought to have done so, for there are some
-very wonderful differences between Bats' ears
-and noses, and the ears and noses of human
-beings. If you will look at anybody's ear
-carefully you will see that in front of, and
-just a little below the ear-hole, there is a
-small lump of flesh which points backwards
-across the opening. It is not much to look
-at in a human being, and does not seem to
-serve any particular purpose, but in many
-Bats it is evidently very important, for it is
-quite large and takes all sorts of curious
-shapes. It is called the "earlet." Sometimes
-it is pointed, sometimes square, and
-sometimes rounded. Sometimes it is long
-and thin and tapering like a dagger, and
-sometimes it is short and thick and blunted
-like a kidney-bean. You will see several of
-its different shapes in the pictures, and you
-will also see that the leaf-nosed Bats, who
-have such queer ornaments on their noses,
-do not have it all. Now some wise folk think
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">{27}</a></span>
-that the ornament on the face of a leaf-nosed
-Bat, which makes him appear so very ugly to
-our ideas (though I have no doubt his wife
-thinks it very beautiful) may give him a kind
-of sixth sense which is neither seeing, nor
-smelling, nor hearing, nor feeling, nor tasting:
-a sense, that is, like that which blind
-people often seem to possess and which helps
-them, poor souls, through their world of
-darkness. If this is so (but you must remember
-that we can only guess about it), it
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">{28}</a></span>
-may be that the earlets of Bats do much the
-same, and that, therefore, Bats with earlets
-have no need of leaf-noses, and Bats with leaf-noses
-have no need of earlets.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/027.jpg" width="500" height="347" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Pipistrille</span><br />
-    A small Bat and one of the commonest</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">{29}</a></div>
-
- <h2>SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES<br />
- <small>(FEBRUARY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 400px;">
-  <img src="images/029.jpg" width="400" height="314" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">This is Toad's Spawn, which is
-    laid in "Ropes"</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">How</span>
-many of you can tell me the difference between a frog-tadpole and a
-toad-tadpole? I don't mean when they are so small that it seems a
-kindness to call them tadpoles at all, but when they are quite a good
-size, with great fat heads and shiny little eyes and squiggly little
-tails. And how many of you can tell me the number of different kinds of
-tadpoles which one can find in England in the springtime? Most
-of you, I am sure, know a tadpole when you see
-one (sometimes he is called "pot-ladle,"or "polly-wog,"
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">{30}</a></span>
-or "horse-nail,") and some of you may
-know that a fat frog-tadpole is brown with little
-specks of gold, while a fat toad-tadpole is black
-all over; but I don't expect many of you
-know that there are two kinds of frog-tadpole,
-and two kinds of toad-tadpole, and three kinds
-of newt-tadpole, to be met with in England,
-which makes seven kinds of tadpoles in all.</p>
-
-<p>Now as these seven little tadpoles are all
-different from one another (though the two frog-tadpoles
-and the two toad-tadpoles are not <i>very</i>
-different), we may be quite sure that they grow
-up into seven different little beasties. I am going
-to tell you something about the frog- and toad-tadpoles
-now and leave the newt-tadpoles for
-another time, for it will be easier for you if you
-don't have too much to remember at once.</p>
-
-<p>If you go into the country in springtime (the
-middle of March is the best time where I live, but
-in other places it may be a little earlier or a little
-later) and find a pond, or a brook which runs
-quite slowly, or even a hole in swampy ground
-which has water in it, you are almost sure to
-see a lump of stuff which looks like dirty grey
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">{31}</a></span>
-jelly, either close to the bank or on the top of
-some of the weeds.</p>
-
-<p>If you pick up a little of this, you will find
-(perhaps before it has slipped out of your fingers
-and perhaps after) that it is full of round black
-eggs.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/031.jpg" width="500" height="450" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">This is Frog's Spawn Floating on the Water</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The grey jelly is either frog's spawn or toad's
-spawn.</p>
-
-<p>If it is just a lump with no particular shape
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">{32}</a></span>
-to it, it is frog's spawn, but if it is made up of
-small slimy ropes, which come apart from one
-another, and in which the eggs lie in rows like
-strings of black beads, it is toad's spawn.
-When you find toad's spawn, you may be sure
-that frog's spawn has been about for some time,
-for frog's spawn is always to be found rather
-earlier in the year. Whichever it may be you
-should take a little of it (quite a little is best)
-and put it in a glass jam-jar half full of water,
-and stand this in some bright, warm place,
-where it will not get knocked over, and where
-the sun will not shine directly on to it.</p>
-
-<p>Frogs and toads usually lay their eggs in
-places where the sun <i>does</i> shine on them and
-warms them gently, and so hatches them out,
-but of course they do not lay them in glass
-bottles, and if the sun shines on these, the water
-will get warmer than is good for them, partly
-because there is no other water round to keep it
-cool, and partly because the bottle acts as a
-kind of burning-glass, and brings too much
-of the sunshine into itself, and so gives too much
-warmth to the eggs.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">{33}</a></span>
-Some people think the jelly of frog's or toad's
-spawn acts like a burning-glass too; this, however,
-is a burning-glass which Mother Nature
-has arranged, and so there is no fear of its not
-acting properly.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/033.jpg" width="500" height="480" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">This is Frog's Spawn When it is Quite Fresh</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>If you find frog's or toad's spawn soon after
-it is laid, you will see only a small quantity of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">{34}</a></span>
-jelly round it, but this soon swells out and gets
-much bigger.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/035.jpg" width="500" height="558" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">This is Frog's Spawn, too</span><br />
-    But I have photographed it with a microscope, so that you may see it
-    a little bigger than it really is. Right in the middle is a Tadpole
-    who has grown his feathery gills, and close to him is one like a
-    little alderman. There is another Tadpole with gills towards the
-    right hand bottom corner, but there is an egg behind which makes his
-    shape wrong. All the round things are eggs and the long things are
-    Tadpoles which have just hatched</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/034.jpg" width="300" height="374" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Frog's Spawn</span><br />
-    The Little Curly Tails are beginning to Grow</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Have you ever seen Cook make a jelly? The first thing she does is to
-soak the gelatine in water, so that it gets soft and swells to twice the
-size it was before. It swells because it takes up water inside it, and
-frog's spawn does just the same. Now we must try and
-think what the frog's spawn jelly is for. It is
-really the white of the eggs, the black beads being
-the yolk. You wouldn't understand all its uses,
-but one is that it makes the frog's spawn much
-more difficult to eat, because it is so slippery.
-A great many water birds are very fond of
-frog's spawn and would gobble it up very
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">{35}</a></span>
-quickly if they had a good, big spoon, instead
-of a rather small bill. As it is, a great deal of
-frog's spawn and a good many tadpoles are
-eaten up one way or another, which is really
-rather lucky for us, for frogs and toads lay
-millions and millions of eggs, and, if they all
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">{36}</a></span>
-hatched out, there wouldn't be room in the
-world for all little frogs and toads.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/036.jpg" width="500" height="426" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Tadpoles are here seen Getting very like Frogs</span><br />
-    Most of them have all four legs, but one has only his hind
-    legs at present</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Well, if you keep your glass bottle with the
-eggs in it in a good place and look at it every
-day, you will find something fresh to interest
-you every day. First the black yolks will grow
-larger and change their shape so that they seem
-longer than they are broad, and presently you
-will find that they are turning into tadpoles.
-The baby tadpole seems much too fat to begin
-with, and sticks out in front like a little alderman;
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">{37}</a></span>
-but soon he gets slimmer again, and you
-find that he is growing a curly tail (which no
-alderman ever did), and that there are tiny markings
-where his eyes and mouth are going to be.
-He is still very small (about a quarter of an
-inch long), but before he is much bigger a very
-wonderful thing happens&mdash;it has been happening
-all the time, though you have not been able to
-see it&mdash;he grows a pair of gills like a fish.
-They are delicate, feathery things, and stand out
-on either side of his head, I should like to say
-"neck," but I do not think I ought to because
-frogs and toads have no necks at all, and so
-I suppose tadpoles have none either. All this
-time his tail is growing too, and presently it is
-long enough for him to swim with. When this
-happens he slips out of the jelly and wriggles
-about in the water. At present he has no real
-mouth, but he has a little opening, shaped like a
-horseshoe, near to where his mouth is going to
-be, and he uses this to hold on to weeds when
-he is tired, which he very soon is at first.</p>
-
-<p>Once he is fairly hatched, however, his mouth
-grows quickly and he gets a pair of rather hard
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">{38}</a></span>
-little jaws with which he can nibble the water-weed.
-When this happens you must, of course,
-put some water-weed into the bottle, though
-grass will do if you can't get anything else.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 484px;">
-  <img src="images/039.jpg" width="484" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Tadpoles Full Grown</span><br />
-    They are covered with little specks of gold. At the bottom
-    one can be seen feeding</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>I told you that he had gills like a fish, but
-they are curious gills at this early stage because
-they have no flap of skin to protect them. If
-you want to see a fish's gills you must lift up
-the hard flap of skin which covers them. The
-tadpole soon grows a flap of skin, though, just
-like a fish, and this always appears first on the
-right side, so that at one stage he looks as if he
-had only one gill, the one on the left side.
-When both the flaps of skin have grown, the
-tadpole is really a little fish, and he stays in
-much the same shape, though he gets fatter
-and fatter, for about a month. At the end of
-this time he begins to grow legs, first the hind
-ones and then the front ones (newt-tadpoles
-grow the front ones first); but, in spite of his
-legs, he is still only a fish, because, instead of
-breathing the air with his lungs as a grown-up
-frog does, he breathes the water with his gills.
-During the next month, when he is getting on
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">{39}</a></span>
-for three months old, another wonderful change
-comes over him. For a time he breathes both
-with his lungs (he has to put his head out of
-water for this) and with his gills, and so he is
-both a frog and a fish at once; but he gets
-more and more like a frog, and less and less
-like a fish. His lungs keep growing inside him,
-and his body and gills and tail get smaller and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">{40}</a></span>
-smaller, and his mouth and his eyes and his legs
-get larger and larger, and presently he leaves
-the water altogether, for he is tired of water-weeds
-and tired of his tail (he can swim beautifully
-without it), and he wants to make his
-meals off insects and slugs, and to learn how to
-croak and jump, and to be a great fat frog like
-Mother.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center">
-  <img src="images/040.jpg" width="125" height="89" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">{41}</a></div>
-
- <h2>A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO!<br />
- <small>(VALENTINE'S DAY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/041.jpg" width="125" height="121" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">"This</span>
-is better," gasped Bombinator.</p>
-
-<p>Bombinatrix eyed him anxiously.</p>
-
-<p>Only his waistcoat touched
-the ground. His eyes and
-nose had vanished. The
-right of either foot was now the left; the left
-of either hand was now the right; his head,
-subverted, curled to touch his toes, and, in his
-back, was a deep hollow.</p>
-
-<p>This sounds involved, and that is just what
-Bombinator was.</p>
-
-<p>"It's awful," said Bombinatrix.</p>
-
-<p>"What do I look like?" spluttered Bombinator.
-"It's awkward talking to your
-feet."</p>
-
-<p>"You're like&mdash;you're like a toadstool," said
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">{42}</a></span>
-Bombinatrix, "a crinkled, gummy, yellow-spotted
-toadstool."</p>
-
-<p>"That's the idea," said Bombinator, as he
-snapped back to shapeliness. "Now you try,"
-and Bombinatrix tried.</p>
-
-<p>"Passable," said Bombinator, "but not sufficient
-curl."</p>
-
-<p>"It cricks my neck," she answered. Her
-head was slowly drooping.</p>
-
-<p>"You <i>must</i> keep rigid," said Bombinator. "I
-can't see half the yellow. Throw back your head."</p>
-
-<p>Bombinatrix threw back her head, until it
-grazed her toe-tips. Then she unstrung herself.</p>
-
-<p>(I see you look incredulous. You ask and
-ask with reason: How came two fire-toads in
-an English garden? To this I answer frankly&mdash;I
-put them there myself.)</p>
-
-<p>Even a fire-toad loves his liberty, though
-prison-life may have its compensations. The
-breakfast gong, for instance, two taps upon the
-glass. The sluggish fatted meal-worm, the
-feeling of full-fed security.</p>
-
-<p>Nor had there been a lack of company.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack had livened things&mdash;by running
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">{43}</a></span>
-races with his own reflection. So had the
-mottled Green Toad, an alien like themselves;
-so, in his own quiet way, the Salamander.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/043.jpg" width="500" height="302" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">"<span class="smcap">Passable," said Bombinator, "but not
-    sufficient Curl</span>"</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Each welcomed freedom differently.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack went straight into the pond
-(quite the wrong thing for him), and swam with
-short-legged jerky sweeps up to the water-lilies.
-There he met the Water-Rat, of whom more
-later. The Green Toad sought the nearest tuft
-of grass, and, scratching with his fore-feet at the
-roots, contrived a roomy burrow. He backed
-inside and sat there quite content, blinking his
-emerald eyes. The Salamander stayed where
-he was put&mdash;and smiled.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">{44}</a></span>
-The fire-toads climbed upon a stone and
-practised squiggles&mdash;aposematic squiggles.</p>
-
-<p>That resonant epithet comes, I think, from
-Oxford. It means, <i>you dare to touch me and
-you'll catch it</i>, or words to that effect. "Apo,"
-get out, and "sema," a sign. It is quite simple,
-really. Yet its significance (in toads) may need
-explaining, and, to be master of the sense of it,
-you must remember that fire-toads, though dusky
-olive green above, are orange red beneath. A
-patch of orange underneath each hand, a patch
-of orange underneath each foot, an orange patchwork
-waistcoat.</p>
-
-<p>Now orange is a poison-label. It means in
-wild-folk speech, "Be careful," and yellow means
-the same; and when black joins the scheme, it
-means, "Be very careful, here is poison."</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes the colour flaunts itself&mdash;witness
-the salamander, or the wasp. Sometimes it is
-concealed, witness the fire-toad. But fire-toads
-have the knack of showing it. Drop one upon
-his back and there he stays, knowing the underpart
-of him is fearsome. Startle one as he sits
-at ease, and he will flick into a knot, crinkly,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">{45}</a></span>
-immovable, unreal, with screaming labels at each
-corner. To be adept at this, the fire-toad needs
-spare living, one meal, at most two meals a day.
-When corpulent he finds the bend beyond him.</p>
-
-<p>But corpulence is transient in toads. The
-first to find a waist was Bombinator, and Bombinatrix
-quickly followed. They now could
-travel with less apprehension. They made five
-equal hops and stopped. Before them stretched
-the pond, green-carpeted, a mirror-patch of water
-here and there, balsam and iris on the fringe of
-it, and fronting them, upon his leaf, the Rat.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack had left him, and was swimming
-landwards. His head bobbed with each
-stroke, and he was slow in coming.</p>
-
-<p>"The surliest brute I ever met," he said.</p>
-
-<p>"The Rat?" said Bombinator.</p>
-
-<p>"The Rat," replied the Natterjack. "He
-grumbled at my ripples in the water&mdash;and <i>he</i>
-makes noise enough. Just listen to him."</p>
-
-<p>The Water-Rat had left his leaf, and now was
-in the reed-stems. He held a two-inch cutting in
-his paws. They heard his munching plainly.</p>
-
-<p>"This is a queer pond," said the Natterjack;
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">{46}</a></span>
-"it's full of noises. A shrew-mouse chirped as
-I swam back, and half a dozen bubbles struck
-me. That means there's something grunting.
-My yellow stripe! what's that?"</p>
-
-<p>It rose <i>crescendo</i>,</p>
-
-<p class="padlft">"<i>brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!</i>"</p>
-
-<p>and finished <i>amoroso</i>,</p>
-
-<p class="padlft">"<i>KO-ax!</i> <i>KO-ax!</i> <i>KO-ax!</i>"</p>
-
-<p>"I know it," shrieked Bombinator. His
-little eyes were starting from their sockets, as
-he sat up entranced.</p>
-
-<p>"I know it," echoed Bombinatrix.</p>
-
-<p>"Then you might share your knowledge,"
-snapped the Natterjack. Jealousy had convulsed
-him, for he too can sing.</p>
-
-<p>"A French Frog," cried Bombinator.</p>
-
-<p>"A French Frog," echoed Bombinatrix, and
-in a rattle came the southern notes:</p>
-
-<p class="padlft">"<i>brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!</i>"</p>
-
-<p class="padlft">"<i>KO-ax!</i> <i>KO-ax!</i> <i>KO-ax!</i>"</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">{47}</a></span>
-"I'll find him, if I hop all night," said
-Bombinator.</p>
-
-<p>He plunged aside into the grass, and Bombinatrix
-followed at his heels.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack soon caught them. He ran
-with little mouse-steps.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/047.jpg" width="200" height="233" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">His Little Eyes were Starting from their
-    Sockets as he sat up entranced</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Are you quite prudent?" he jerked out.</p>
-
-<p>"Prudent?" said Bombinator, "why, he's a countryman."</p>
-
-<p>So all three went together, and dropped abreast into the Green Toad's
-burrow.</p>
-
-<p>"Have you heard him?" said Bombinator.</p>
-
-<p>The Green Toad was half dozing.</p>
-
-<p>"Heard what?" he muttered sleepily.</p>
-
-<p>"The French Frog," said Bombinator.
-"Come out and listen."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">{48}</a></span>
-They pulled him out between them.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 328px;">
-  <img src="images/048.jpg" width="328" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">THE WATER-RAT HAD LEFT HIS LEAF AND NOW WAS
-    IN THE REED-STEMS. HE HELD A TWO-INCH CUTTING IN HIS PAWS.
-    THEY HEARD HIS MUNCHING PLAINLY</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">{49}</a></span>
-The Green Toad slowly stretched himself.</p>
-
-<p>"<i>That?</i>" said he, "that's not French." Then
-he relapsed to sleep again.</p>
-
-<p>"What did I tell you?" said the Natterjack.</p>
-
-<p>"You told us nothing," said Bombinator.
-"Let's ask the Salamander."</p>
-
-<p>The Salamander had not moved an inch.</p>
-
-<p>"Is that song French?" the Natterjack inquired.</p>
-
-<p>The Salamander slowly raised his head,
-curled S-wise out and home again, blinked
-either eye three times, smiled fatuously at each
-toad in turn, and then smiled at the sky.</p>
-
-<p>"Oh, come on!" said the Natterjack. The
-Natterjack is all on wires, and Salamanders
-madden him.</p>
-
-<p class="padlft">"<i>brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!</i>"</p>
-
-<p class="padlft">"<i>KO-ax!</i> <i>KO-ax!</i> <i>KO-ax!</i>"</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack now led them, faster and
-faster as the song grew louder, hippy-hoppy,
-hurry-scurry, bumping against the snails and
-spiders, starting the flies and beetles, and
-rousing every sleeper in the grass.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">{50}</a></span>
-Small wonder that they soon encountered
-trouble.</p>
-
-<p>They wakened the King Toad.</p>
-
-<p>Since you last knew him, the King Toad has
-grown. His waist is fourteen inches. His
-mouth could welcome three small toads
-abreast.</p>
-
-<p>The fire-toads crouched in front of him (the
-mouth seemed very wide); even the Natterjack
-hung back, and waited to be spoken to.</p>
-
-<p>Ten minutes passed, and then the King Toad
-spoke, in slow, imperial-measured tones.</p>
-
-<p>"Who are you?" said he, and fixed his royal
-eye on Bombinator.</p>
-
-<p>Bombinator's mouth was flattened to the
-ground, and his reply was indistinct.</p>
-
-<p>"Speak louder," said the King Toad.</p>
-
-<p>But Bombinator kept his head. If he spoke
-louder he must move, and, if he moved, he might
-be swallowed.</p>
-
-<p>Once more he muttered with closed lips.</p>
-
-<p>The King Toad slowly raised one foot. Before
-it reached the ground again the Natterjack had
-vanished. So had the fire-toads, but in different
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">{51}</a></span>
-fashion. Where they had been were now two
-spotted toadstools.</p>
-
-<p>"That's a queer trick," said the King meditatively.
-"Orange underneath I see. Risky
-to eat without inquiries. Come back, Natterjack."</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/051.jpg" width="500" height="360" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Salamander had not moved
-    an Inch</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Two yellow eyes were peeping round a dock-leaf.
-The Natterjack slouched low in the
-Presence.</p>
-
-<p>"Have you seen this trick before?" said the
-King Toad coldly.</p>
-
-<p>"I have, Sire," said the Natterjack.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">{52}</a></span>
-"Do it yourself," said the King Toad.</p>
-
-<p>"Alas, Sire," said the Natterjack, "I am too
-stout."</p>
-
-<p>"Not a bad fault," said the King more
-graciously, "not a bad fault. What is the
-meaning of it?"</p>
-
-<p>"It means, Sire, that my two small friends
-are frightened."</p>
-
-<p>"Frightened?" said the King Toad; "frightened
-of what?"</p>
-
-<p>"Of you, Sire."</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/052.jpg" width="500" height="401" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Natterjack Slouched low
-    into the Presence</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">{53}</a></span>
-"Of me?" said the King Toad. "Why
-should a toad fear me? I am the Protector of
-all toads." He swelled himself imperially.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/053.jpg" width="500" height="355" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"Have You Seen this Trick before?" said
-    the King Toad</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"These are strange toads, Sire," said the
-Natterjack, "they come from France."</p>
-
-<p>"France?" said the King; "this must be
-looked to. The place is being overrun with
-aliens. Undo them, Natterjack."</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack looked pained.</p>
-
-<p>"Sire," he gasped out, "they're poisonous.
-I bit one once, and could not sing for
-days."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">{54}</a></span>
-"Could not sing for days?" said the King.
-"Could not sing for days?" The shadow of a
-smile played round his mouth.</p>
-
-<p>"Just fetch me that French Frog," he said.</p>
-
-<p>"Sire," said the Natterjack, "it was during
-our unsuccessful search for him that we had the
-felicity of being so graciously received by your
-Majesty."</p>
-
-<p>"You know him then," said the King, frowning.</p>
-
-<p>"The fire-toads know his song, Sire. At
-least they said he was a countryman."</p>
-
-<p>"They shall be made better acquainted," said
-the King, "much better acquainted. You will
-find the French Frog by the water's edge,
-beneath the furze-bush. You may go."</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack went scudding like a mouse.</p>
-
-<p>He started in the wrong direction, but chance
-befriended him. Climbing upon a clump of
-moss, he opened out the circuit of the pond.
-The furze-bush stood on the far side of it. Its
-lower branches jutted from the bank, and, arching
-downwards, trailed into the water. From
-the first dip of them spread dancing waves.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">{55}</a></span>
-The French Frog still was singing, and each
-note, caught and re-echoed overhead, crept down
-the boughs and rippled to the shore.</p>
-
-<p>So far so good. His goal was plainly visible.
-But how to get there? He
-made a bee-line for the water's
-edge, and tumbled down the
-bank.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/055.jpg" width="125" height="129" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>His first idea, to swim, was
-soon abandoned.</p>
-
-<p>With no clear mark by which
-to set his course he might swim on till nightfall.
-But if he crept along close to the water?
-This seemed a certainty, so off he started.</p>
-
-<p>It was uneven going. Sometimes a stretch of
-sticky mud, sometimes the mazy reed-stems,
-and sometimes, where the bank was hollowed
-out, deep water.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack was nimble on his feet, and
-scuttling, crawling, swimming, made good progress.
-Before he paused, the furze-bush rose
-above him. Once in the shade of this, he moved
-discreetly. He slid from stone to stone, and at
-each stone he rose to reconnoitre. At the fifth
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">{56}</a></span>
-stone, a bulky slanting one, he sighted the
-French Frog. The French Frog sat absorbed
-in his own harmonies, his mouthpiece taut,
-to right and left of it two filmy bubble spheres,
-now swelling now collapsing.</p>
-
-<p class="padlft">"<i>brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!</i>"</p>
-
-<p class="padlft">"<i>KO-ax!</i> <i>KO-ax!</i> <i>KO-ax!</i>"</p>
-
-<p>It sounded like a challenge.</p>
-
-<p>The last notes struck the listener squarely. He
-too could sing. Had he not sung against the
-wood-pecker, yaffle for yaffle, note for note? He
-swelled himself to bursting point, shut both his
-eyes, strained to their uttermost the voice-chords
-underneath his tongue, and loosed one mighty
-"Yaup!" It cut the last "<i>Ko-ax</i>" in half, and
-as its rattle spent itself, he looked to see what
-came of it. He looked in vain. The French
-Frog was not there.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack at first was jubilant (a signal
-victory this) but quiet reflection sobered him.</p>
-
-<p>His mission was to bring the French Frog
-with him. Now there was no French Frog to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">{57}</a></span>
-bring. He searched five yards each way, then
-gloomily retraced his steps.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/057.jpg" width="500" height="365" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The French Frog Sat Absorbed in
-    his own Harmonies, his Mouthpiece taut, to Right and Left of it,
-    two Filmy Bubble Spheres, now Swelling, now Collapsing</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>He found the King Toad sleeping, and pausing
-at a prudent range, croaked nervously.</p>
-
-<p>The King Toad made no sign.</p>
-
-<p>He croaked again, and louder.</p>
-
-<p>The King Toad moved uneasily. His eyebrows
-twitched, and one eye half revealed itself.
-Upper and under lids stayed fast, but, in their
-crescent interval, a third lid fluttered, a filmy,
-shadowy, cobweb thing, which brushed aside
-the dream-mists.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">{58}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/058.jpg" width="500" height="300" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"I see a Natterjack," he said, "a
-    Starveling, Mouse Legged Natterjack. I sent for a French Frog"</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>So in due order, decorously, to open round-eyed
-vision. The Natterjack was palpably distressed.</p>
-
-<p>His mouth drooped dismally; he shuffled
-each squat foot in turn.</p>
-
-<p>At last the King Toad spoke.</p>
-
-<p>"I see a Natterjack," he said, "a starveling,
-mouse-legged Natterjack. I sent for a French
-Frog."</p>
-
-<p>"Sire," said the Natterjack, his voice a-quiver,
-"I f-found him, but he v-vanished."</p>
-
-<p>"Fetch him," thundered the King Toad.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack fled headlong.</p>
-
-<p>"I shall have to find him," he muttered to
-himself.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">{59}</a></span>
-He stumbled on the Salamander. The Salamander,
-after working for an hour, had partially
-concealed himself. His smiling face alone was
-visible, framed by the grass-stems.</p>
-
-<p>"Have&mdash;you&mdash;seen&mdash;the&mdash;French&mdash;Frog?"
-said the Natterjack, as loudly and as plainly as
-he could.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/059.jpg" width="500" height="396" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"Fetch him," thundered the King Toad.
-    The Natterjack Fled Headlong</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Salamander turned his face away and
-smiled across his shoulder.</p>
-
-<p>"Have&mdash;you&mdash;seen&mdash;the&mdash;French&mdash;Frog?"
-the Natterjack repeated.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">{60}</a></span>
-The Salamander's face came slowly round
-again, still smiling. It was too much; no longer
-could the Natterjack contain himself. He ducked
-his head and pranced, his legs flung round him
-anyhow.</p>
-
-<p>So for a mad five minutes; at last he got his
-answer, suave tones across the intervening grass:
-"Have I seen what?"</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack plunged straight into the
-pond. His nerves were over-wrought, his heart
-was racing. But for this cooling dive he must
-have burst. He rose among the lily leaves, and,
-clutching one, hung slantwise. Slowly the
-madness left him.</p>
-
-<p>Then he commenced to paddle circumspectly.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/060a.jpg" width="500" height="439" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">The Green Toad slowly stretched himself.
-    "<span class="smcap">That</span>?" said he, "that's not French."</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/060b.jpg" width="500" height="425" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">At the fifth stone&mdash;a bulky slanting one, he
-    sighted the French Frog.</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>He steered a zig-zag course, and, scanning
-every leaf in turn, came to the outskirts of the
-cluster. Here he sank slowly down, until his
-nose alone was visible. The leaf on his right
-hand was moving. A ripple ran the length of it;
-then, close beside its stalk, appeared a snout, a
-quivering trembling snout; then two bead eyes;
-then a trim velvet body. The Natterjack brought
-up his head again. No danger here, only a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">{61}</a></span>
-water Shrew-mouse. The Shrew-mouse took
-no heed of him. She swam the circuit of her
-leaf three times, dived once or twice, then
-climbed upon its surface. Here she performed
-her toilet. The goggle-eyes in no way disconcerted
-her. At length the Natterjack found
-words:</p>
-
-<p>"Can you tell me," he said, politely, "where
-the French Frog has got to?"</p>
-
-<p>The Shrew-mouse gave a little jump. She
-had been combing out her tail, which was
-important.</p>
-
-<p>"The French Frog?" she said; "the French
-Frog? I'm sick of the French Frog. What
-between him and the Water Rat&mdash;and the queer
-thing is that neither of them seems to know that
-the other&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>"Of course, he's very fond of me," she
-added. "Every day he sings <i>at</i> me, and so,
-of course, when he comes my way, I have to
-<i>ask</i> him to sing; and the
-worst of it is, when I <i>ask</i>
-him to sing, he <i>does</i> sing."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/061.jpg" width="125" height="87" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>"I think that might be cured,"
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">{62}</a></span>
-said the Natterjack, "if you can tell me where
-he is."</p>
-
-<p>"Where did you see him last?" said the
-Shrew-mouse.</p>
-
-<p>"Under the furze-bush," said the Natterjack.</p>
-
-<p>"Under the furze-bush?" echoed the Shrew-mouse;
-"perhaps then I can find him. Swim
-behind me."</p>
-
-<p>She slid so neatly off her leaf that not a drop
-of water reached her back. Then she commenced
-to paddle, her feet alternate, her square
-tail trailing, her nose and face awash. Twin
-ripples spread on either side of her, and, in
-between them, though their distance widened,
-the Natterjack swam stoutly, using his squat
-hind-legs alone, short jerky thrusts of them, and
-losing at each stroke.</p>
-
-<p>He reached the shore two yards behind, but
-yet in time to see the last of her, a fluttering
-wavy tail-tip, which skimmed the summit of a
-stone and disappeared behind it.</p>
-
-<p>This was disheartening. The Natterjack had
-spent his strength, and quick pursuit was out of
-question. He paused and stretched each limb in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">{63}</a></span>
-turn, scratched his chin doubtfully,
-and looked about
-him. He looked first at the
-water, then at the stone to fix
-it in his memory, and lastly at the bank above.
-Here his eyes rested, expressionless at first,
-lack-lustrous, but presently, with quickened
-interest, sparkling.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/063.jpg" width="125" height="80" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>It must be, yes it was, the self-same furze-bush.
-He stared intently. It was the self-same
-stone. Perhaps the French Frog still was close
-at hand; perhaps the Shrew-mouse knew his
-hiding-place.</p>
-
-<p>He flung his tiredness off him, and started
-running jauntily.</p>
-
-<p>He had not far to go. Two scurries
-brought him to the stone, two scrambles to
-its summit.</p>
-
-<p>There was the Shrew-mouse just below.</p>
-
-<p>She was too occupied to note his coming.
-She coursed along the water's edge, her head
-dropped low, her face almost submerged. At
-times she paused and sniffed the air, her nose
-upturned and crinkly, her bristles fan-shape.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">{64}</a></span>
-Then she would drop her head again and probe
-the water.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack watched quietly for a while,
-but soon impatience mastered him. He crept
-down and addressed her timidly.</p>
-
-<p>"You said you might find the French Frog,"
-he began.</p>
-
-<p>"I have found him," said the Shrew-mouse;
-"he's down there&mdash;as usual."</p>
-
-<p>"Down where?" said the Natterjack.</p>
-
-<p>"Down in the water," said the Shrew-mouse,
-"down at the bottom of this pool, a good foot
-down."</p>
-
-<p>"Would you mind asking him to come up?"
-said the Natterjack.</p>
-
-<p>"I've asked him for five minutes," said the
-Shrew-mouse. "He must be fast asleep. I
-know he's there; I've seen his bubbles."</p>
-
-<p>"How can we wake him?" said the Natterjack.</p>
-
-<p>"You'd better dive," said the Shrew-mouse.</p>
-
-<p>Now Natterjacks are bad enough at swimming;
-at diving they are hopeless.</p>
-
-<p>"In you go," said the Shrew-mouse.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">{65}</a></span>
-For very shame the Natterjack went in.</p>
-
-<p>He swam to what he judged a likely spot,
-ducked down his head, his hands pressed tight
-against it, and lunged with both hind-legs.
-These, splashing on the surface, urged him on,
-but not one inch below.</p>
-
-<p>Five times he tried, and five times his fat
-body, when half submerged, shot up and bobbed
-afloat.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/065.jpg" width="500" height="367" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Five Times He Tried, and Five Times His
-    Fat Body, when Half Submerged, Shot Up and Bobbed Afloat</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">{66}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/066.jpg" width="200" height="400" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Shrew-Mouse drew all Four Feet
-    together and Slithered Eel-wise off the Ledge</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Shrew-mouse rocked with laughter.</p>
-
-<p>"Again, Natterjack!" she cried. "Again!
-again!"</p>
-
-<p>Shame-faced, he paddled back to shore.</p>
-
-<p>"Be charitable, Shrew-mouse, be charitable. I did my best."</p>
-
-<p>The Shrew-mouse looked at him inquiringly. "Never mind, Natterjack," she
-said, "I'll fetch him. It's hardly the right thing to do, but
-still&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>She climbed a ledge, drew all four feet together, and slithered off
-it eel-wise. She swam a yard and dived. The
-water closed like oil upon her going. Ten
-seconds passed and then she reappeared.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">{67}</a></span>
-"He's coming, Natterjack," she said, and
-landed close beside him. The French Frog
-shot up like a cork, and half of him splashed
-clear above the surface. He took two strokes
-to reach the shore, and came out moist and
-shiny. He bristled with apologies&mdash;"It was
-unpardonable. He was altogether desolated.
-That a lady should have had to dive for him.
-Alas! he had been dreaming, and his dream,
-like all his dreams&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/067.jpg" width="500" height="372" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">He Bristled with Apologies</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Shrew-mouse cut him short.</p>
-
-<p>"The King Toad has heard your singing,"
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">{68}</a></span>
-she said, "and has commanded your presence.
-The Natterjack will guide you."</p>
-
-<p>Ambition strove with gallantry, and, for a
-time, the French Frog wavered.</p>
-
-<p>"And have I your permission, Shrew-mouse?"
-he said, at last.</p>
-
-<p>"Please go," said she, "then come and tell
-me all about it." So both departed. The
-Shrew-mouse watched them out of sight, then
-swam to open water. She wished the Rat to
-see her next.</p>
-
-<p class="center gap-between">*****</p>
-
-<p>"Sire," said the Natterjack, "it is my
-privilege to inform you that I have been successful."</p>
-
-<p>The King Toad made no answer. His eyes
-turned from the Natterjack to his companion,
-and, after an appropriate pause, he signed with
-one fore-foot.</p>
-
-<p>The French Frog tiptoed forward.</p>
-
-<p>"I have heard your singing," said the King
-Toad, "and your singing has annoyed me
-intensely."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">{69}</a></span>
-There was a queer strained silence.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack turned to conceal his face,
-and saw the Green Toad perched above him.
-He too was struggling to keep countenance.
-Beside him was the Salamander, wreathed in
-smiles.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 464px;">
-  <img src="images/069.jpg" width="464" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Green Toad, too, was Struggling to
-    keep Countenance</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">{70}</a></span>
-"Your singing has annoyed me intensely,"
-repeated the King Toad.</p>
-
-<p>Words failed the French Frog, who could
-only gulp.</p>
-
-<p>"Sire," he burst out at length, "it was a love-song."</p>
-
-<p>"A love-song!" said the King Toad, "a love-song! and what nice-minded
-English frog would listen to <i>your</i> love-song?"</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/070.jpg" width="300" height="347" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">His Inside was Red-Hot</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The French Frog might have scored a point,
-but prudence checked him.</p>
-
-<p>"I am a poor exile, Sire," he said, "and, when
-I sing, my heart is far away."</p>
-
-<p>"So will your voice be, soon," said the King
-affably. "Come out, fire-toads." The fire-toads
-squirmed from underneath him.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">{71}</a></span>
-The French Frog eyed them greedily. There
-are worse eatables than little toads.</p>
-
-<p>"You may have the big one," said the King.</p>
-
-<p>"Sire!" screamed Bombinatrix.</p>
-
-<p>But she was too late. The French Frog's
-mouth had closed again, and all now visible
-of Bombinator was one distraught hind leg.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/071.jpg" width="500" height="368" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">He Lay as He had Fallen on His Back</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Excellent," murmured the King Toad, and
-watched the French Frog narrowly. He was
-worth watching. He paled a dirty ochre, his
-eyes rolled horribly, he scratched his sides with
-both hind feet, he dragged at his own throat, he
-gasped and foamed and spluttered.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">{72}</a></span>
-"Most interesting," said the King.</p>
-
-<p>But there was more to follow. The French
-Frog straddled with his toes wide spread; then
-came an uncontrollable explosion, which flung
-him four feet skywards, and, at the height of
-this great leap, loosed Bombinator.</p>
-
-<p>Two thuds were heard, the first a sounding,
-floppy one, the second farther off and duller.</p>
-
-<p>"I thought that would happen," said the
-King Toad.</p>
-
-<p>The French Frog slowly pulled himself
-together, climbed up the slope, and sat with
-mouth agape. His inside was red-hot.</p>
-
-<p>The Natterjack burst into song, the Green
-Toad joined him, the Salamander laughed outright,
-but Bombinatrix, with a heavy heart,
-hopped silently away.</p>
-
-<p>She was not long in finding him. He lay, as
-he had fallen, on his back, his hands and feet
-outspread, his poor throat twitching. But he
-still breathed, breathed in short, wheezy, gasping
-sobs, which made his whole frame shudder.</p>
-
-<p>She crept up close and whispered. I cannot
-tell you what she said, but Bombinator caught
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">{73}</a></span>
-the sense of it. He stretched his legs as far as
-they would go, and clasped his hands beneath
-his chin. This seemed to ease his breathing,
-and presently, from every pore, welled a bead-drop
-of moisture. He lay thus for an hour, and
-Bombinatrix mounted guard beside him.</p>
-
-<p>At last he moved, but Bombinatrix checked
-him instantly. "Down, Toad of mine," she
-whispered, "down for your dear life!"</p>
-
-<p>"What is it now?" he groaned.</p>
-
-<p>"Ducks," whispered Bombinatrix, "Great,
-Fat, White Ducks!"</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/073.jpg" width="500" height="365" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"Ducks," whispered Bombinatrix, "Great,
-    Fat, White Ducks"</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">{75}</a></div>
-
- <h2>ANIMALS' NESTS<br />
- <small>(MARCH)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 125px;">
-  <img src="images/075.jpg" width="125" height="98" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">When</span>
-a young friend of mine told me the other day that he was going
-birds'-nesting, and I told him in reply that I was going
-animal-nesting, I think that, if he had not been
-a very polite young friend, he would have laughed
-at me. As it was he laughed <i>with</i> me&mdash;which
-was really very nice of him, for he must have
-been thinking all the time that I was laughing
-at <i>him</i>. But I was quite serious really. I <i>was</i>
-going animal-nesting. I hear you ask at once,
-"What animal was it?" and I might tease
-you by saying, "Any animal, of course.
-When you go birds'-nesting you look for any
-kind of bird's nest <i>you</i> can find, and when I
-go animal-nesting, I look for any kind of
-animal's nest <i>I</i> can find." But I won't do
-that, because there are only a few animals'
-nests which can be found in the same way in
-which you find birds' nests. All animals make
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">{76}</a></span>
-some kind of nest for their babies, and most of
-them make some kind of nest to sleep in too.
-They make them in such queer, out-of-the-way
-places, though, that it would be quite impossible
-for any boy or girl, let alone a man or woman,
-to find them; for the first thing to be done
-would be to choose the right hole in the ground,
-and the next thing to be done would be to
-crawl down it. Some animals, however, make
-nests which are not in burrows, and though
-these are not nearly so easy to find as birds'
-nests, they can be found if you know the sort
-of place to look for them in.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">{77}</a></span>
-There are four animals in this country whose
-nests can be found without having to dig, and
-these are the mole, the squirrel, the dormouse,
-and the harvest-mouse. Three of these build
-their nests above the ground, and the fourth,
-"the little gentleman in black velvet," builds
-the ground above his nest. I am going to tell
-you something about this one (the mole) first,
-because his nest, I think, is the easiest to see.
-I expect most of you know those queer little
-heaps of earth which are sometimes dotted
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">{78}</a></span>
-about the fields and are called mole-hills (I
-want you to keep these in your minds for the
-moment), and I expect those of you who have
-got a natural history book will have seen a
-picture of what is called a mole fortress. I
-want you to put that out of your mind altogether;
-it is quite wrong. Now, the little mole-hills
-never have a nest in them, and I am not quite
-sure why the moles make so many, but if you
-ever find a really big hill among the little ones,
-as big as six or seven of these heaped together,
-and grub down into it (it is quite soft, and you
-can do this with your hands if you don't mind
-getting dirty), you will find a mole's nest just
-about the place where you would find the grass
-growing if there was no hill at all. In May or
-June you may find the baby moles. Have a
-good look at them and put them back, for you
-won't be able to keep them alive, and the
-mother mole is sure to come back and look
-after them&mdash;when you have gone.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/077.jpg" width="500" height="442" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">FOUR MOLES' NESTS TOGETHER. THE BIG HILLOCK
-    OF EARTH ABOVE THEM HAS ALL BEEN TAKEN AWAY SO THAT THEY
-    COULD BE PHOTOGRAPHED</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Another animal's nest which is easy to find
-is the squirrel's, but of course it is no use
-looking for this anywhere but in woods and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">{79}</a></span>
-places of that kind where you know there are
-squirrels about. A squirrel's nest is in a hole,
-or fork of a tree, and always, always out of
-reach. When it is in a fork of a tree it looks
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">{80}</a></span>
-like an untidy bird's-nest, made of rather big
-twigs. It has a soft, warm lining, though, and,
-if you can get up to it, you may find the baby
-squirrels inside in June. If they are furry you
-can take them away, for then they are quite
-easy to bring up and tame.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 379px;">
-  <img src="images/079.jpg" width="379" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Squirrel. "Squirrel means Shadowtail"</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Then there is the harvest-mouse's nest, which
-is the most beautifully made of all, and is
-usually to be found in cornfields, built some
-way up the stalks, and looking just like a bird's-nest
-except that it is quite round and has no
-opening that you can see. One can't very well
-walk about in a cornfield, but you have another
-chance of finding a harvest-mouse's nest in the
-hay-time, for they often build in the hay, and
-once I found one with babies in it, on a haycock,
-where it had been thrown without any one
-noticing it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">{81}</a></span>
-</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 334px;">
-  <img src="images/081.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">THE HARVEST MOUSE'S NEST<br/>
-    The most beautifully made of all</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>You have two chances, too, of finding a
-dormouse's nest, for this mouse builds one nest
-for the babies, and another to sleep in through
-the winter. Both of them are rather big compared
-with the harvest-mouse's nest, and they
-are generally made of moss and leaves, often
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">{82}</a></span>
-honeysuckle leaves, which the mother dormouse
-seems to like, though I can't tell you why.</p>
-
-<p>The dormouse often makes a sleeping-nest at
-the side of a path through a wood, and does
-not seem to fasten it very carefully, for one
-sometimes finds it in the middle of a path, as
-if the dormouse had turned over in his sleep
-and sent the whole thing rolling. It may be,
-though, that some hungry animal has pulled
-the nest out, and thinking the dormouse dead,
-preferred to take the chance of finding something
-alive and warm, and so left it.</p>
-
-<p>If you ever find a sleeping dormouse, which
-will feel quite cold, you should take the nest
-and all and keep it somewhere out of doors.
-For if you bring it into a warm house, it will
-wake up before its proper time and very likely
-die; but if you leave it alone until the spring
-comes, it will wake up as Mother Nature meant
-it to, and you will have a pet which you will
-like much better than one which you looked
-at in a shop window, and could not resist
-buying.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/083f1.jpg" width="300" height="294" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Dormouse</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Now there are other things for you to learn
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">{83}</a></span>
-about animals' nests besides the kind of places
-in which you may hope to find them. To begin
-with, you must remember that an animal has not
-got the beautiful little nest-making tool which a bird has&mdash;I mean,
-of course, a beak. A bird's beak is used something like a
-knitting-needle, to thread the little wisps of hay and feathers and moss
-and things like that in and out and round about, until they stick where
-the beak tells them. I
-expect that animals use their teeth a little in
-the same way, but they use them more, I
-think, in biting leaves into strips, in softening
-hard stalks, and cutting thick grasses
-into thin ones, and I feel sure that they
-would find knitting very awkward, because of
-their thick lips. Most animals, instead of
-building a nest in front of themselves, build it
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">{84}</a></span>
-round themselves. The first thing they do is
-to collect a little store of nest-material, and this
-they manage by biting and nibbling at anything
-which they think will be nice and soft, and
-carrying it away in their mouths. I expect
-most of you have seen a house-mouse's nest.
-It is usually made of scraps of paper and wool
-and fluff and other little rubbishes, which
-they can pick up behind the walls and under
-the floor. Sometimes, though, Mousey is not
-content with a common kind of nest, and gets
-into a hat-box and spoils a pretty hat, or into
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">{85}</a></span>
-a drawer and spoils valuable papers. Once a
-mouse nibbled the date and the signature off
-a valuable paper of mine. That was all she
-took, but it gave me a great deal of trouble, for
-it was a legal paper, and it had to be done all
-over again. Sometimes Mousey chooses even
-queerer places. I will tell you three I have
-heard of; the first was a tin of gunpowder, the
-second was a box of cigars, and the third was
-a plum cake. The last sounds the nicest,
-doesn't it? But mousey is very fond of
-tobacco, and I have often seen her, when the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">{86}</a></span>
-house was quiet, nibbling at scraps of tobacco
-which I had dropped on the carpet.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 339px;">
-  <img src="images/085.jpg" width="339" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">A DORMOUSE'S NURSERY NEST, BUILT IN A FURZE BUSH</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The first thing that animals do, then, is to
-collect a little store of nest material. The next
-thing is to dive right into the middle of it.
-When they are well in the middle, they begin
-turning over and over, with a tug here and a
-push there, and little curls and flicks of the tail
-(the Harvest Mouse has the most useful tail of
-any of our animals, and that, I think, is one
-reason why his nest is so neat), until in a very
-short time they have scooped out a hollow in
-the ball of grass, or whatever it may be, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">{87}</a></span>
-are sitting inside it. Sometimes they have to
-come out and get some more grass, and then
-the outside of the nest, which is quite springy,
-closes up like a little trapdoor behind them, and
-they have to make a fresh way in.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/086.jpg" width="300" height="300" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Harvest Mouse</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">{89}</a></div>
-
- <h2>SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES<br />
- <small>(APRIL)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/089.jpg" width="125" height="103" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">I expect</span>
-that most of you have seen some of the wonderful foreign
-beetles, whose wing-covers gleam and sparkle with
-colour as though they were studded with
-jewels; and some of you, perhaps, may have
-envied the small Black Folks down south,
-who have the chance of finding such beautiful
-things. But if you have a microscope, or
-even a magnifying glass, or if you know
-some one who will lend you either, you need
-not envy the small Black Folks at all, for
-here, in our own dear country, there are hosts
-and hosts of beetles as beautiful as any in the
-world. But there is always a something, isn't
-there? and the something in this case is that
-they are so very, very small. There is another
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">{90}</a></span>
-something, and that is that nearly all of them
-have such very, very long names. The reason
-for this is that the young people were not the first
-to find them. If they had done so they would
-certainly have given them names which grownups
-could understand, just as the young people
-of long ago christened Tom-Tit and Jenny
-Wren, and Daddy Long-legs and Flitter Mouse.
-All these names have lived since they were first
-made, and they will live, I think, long after
-some much more learned names for the same
-things have been altogether forgotten.</p>
-
-<p>Now I must tell you how to find these beautiful
-little beetles, and I think that you will be
-able to find them very soon after you have read
-these lines, for the spring-time will have come,
-and the May will have flowered, and there is
-nothing that the little beetles like better than
-May-buds. All you have to do is to find a
-May-tree (it doesn't matter if it is white or pink,
-and it needn't even be a May-tree so long as
-there is plenty of blossom on it) and hit one of
-the branches with a stick, and hold a butterfly-net,
-or an old umbrella, or a piece of newspaper,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">{91}</a></span>
-or even your hat (an old hat is best) underneath,
-and catch what falls from the branches. You
-will find all sorts of things, but among them there are sure to be some
-tiny long-snouted beetles which are called Rhynchophora. That is a
-dreadful name, isn't it? but I think that the English word "weevils" is
-just as ugly. Though they are very small indeed, you will see at once
-that they have very wonderful colours. Probably you will catch an
-emerald-green one, and a sky-blue one, and
-perhaps a little square-shaped scarlet one, which
-is not very uncommon, and there may come a
-red-letter day when you catch one of the most
-beautiful little beetles in the world, who is green
-and crimson and gold. I have done this twice
-myself.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">{92}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/091f1.jpg" width="200" height="352" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Stag-Beetle</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>There are so many different beetles in our
-country that no one has ever collected all of
-them. Most are very small indeed, like
-the weevils, but a few are quite big, and
-I am showing you pictures of some of the
-largest.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps I ought to tell you how to know a
-beetle when you see one. This sounds easy
-enough, but it is not quite as easy as it sounds.
-All beetles have six legs (beetles' bodies are
-divided into three parts, and the legs grow out
-of the middle part); nearly all of them have
-strong, horny covers for their wings, and all of
-them have their skeletons outside. This sounds
-a very topsy-turvy arrangement, but it is quite
-true. We have our bones inside, and our flesh
-outside, but beetles have their bones outside
-and their flesh inside. Sometimes you may see
-beetles crushed flat in the road, but often they
-are trodden on or run over without being killed;
-and the reason for this is that their hard, outside
-skeletons prevent their soft insides from being
-altogether squashed up. Once I ran over a
-Stag-beetle on my bicycle&mdash;it was nearly dark
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">{93}</a></span>
-at the time, and I was over him before I could
-get out of his way. Now a big Stag-beetle
-weighs about an eighth of an ounce, and I am
-rather a heavy person&mdash;indeed, with my bicycle
-thrown in I should think that I must weigh
-over two hundredweight, which is about thirty
-thousand times as much as the Stag-beetle.
-You can imagine how surprised I was to find
-that the Stag-beetle was not hurt. I ought to
-tell you, though, that the road was soft, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">{94}</a></span>
-that my bicycle-tyres were not blown up hard,
-so perhaps the Stag-beetle did not get all my
-weight on his back&mdash;but, anyhow, it was a
-wonderful escape for him, wasn't it?</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/093.jpg" width="500" height="416" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Stag-Beetle</span><br />
-    This is the one that I ran over on my bicycle</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The two largest beetles in this country are
-the Stag-beetle and the Great Black Water
-Beetle. I am not sure which should really be
-called the larger of the two, for it seems hardly
-fair to count the Stag-beetle's antlers, and if we
-leave these out, I fancy that the Great Black
-Water Beetle has the bigger body. It is curious
-that these two large beetles should be such quiet,
-easy-going things, and that they should never
-dream of eating beetles smaller than themselves.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 402px;">
-  <img src="images/095.jpg" width="402" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Female Stag-Beetle, whose antlers
-    are quite short, and two Stag-Beetle Grubs</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/096.jpg" width="500" height="363" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Great Water Beetle</span><br />
-    Who looks as if he was silver-plated underneath</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But so it is, for both of them, the Stag-beetle
-on land and the Great Water Beetle in the ditch,
-eat scarcely anything at all, and, when they do
-eat, are quite content to suck the juices out of
-plants. One reason for these big beetles eating
-so little is, I think, the very long time which
-they have for feeding while they are caterpillars&mdash;beetle
-caterpillars, by the way, are always
-called "grubs" or "larvæ," and beetle chrysalises
-are called "pupæ." The grubs of the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">{95}</a></span>
-Stag-beetle live on decaying wood (you may
-sometimes find them at the bottom of an old
-gate post which has decayed under the ground),
-and take three or four years to become "full-fed."
-The grub of the Great Water Beetle spends
-all his time (three or four years, too, I expect) in
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">{96}</a></span>
-the water, and I think he feeds on decaying plants,
-but I am not sure of this. Some people say that
-the Stag-beetle uses his great antlers to crush
-twigs and leaves so as to get the juice. This
-may be so, but I have never seen him do it.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/097.jpg" width="200" height="329" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Musk Beetle</span><br />
-    Who has a very nice smell</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Another big and beautiful insect is the Musk
-Beetle. As you see in the picture, he has very
-long horns and a narrow body. He is a beautiful
-bronze green all over, and must be a
-wonderful sight when he is flying in the
-sunshine. I have never seen him fly myself,
-but people who have say that his legs
-and horns stream out behind him, so that
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">{97}</a></span>
-he must look like a little green Heron. Perhaps
-the most wonderful thing about him,
-however, is his scent. I expect most of you
-know those little round pink sweets which
-are called "cachous." He smells just like the
-taste of those, and that is why he is called Musk Beetle.</p>
-
-<p>Another big beetle I have to show you is the Cockchafer. You must look
-at his picture carefully, because it shows you how a beetle lifts up his
-hard wing-covers when he is going to fly. Some beetles, the Burying
-Beetle
-for one, turn these wing-covers almost upside
-down when they are flying, so that the hollowed
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">{98}</a></span>
-side is uppermost. I expect that this helps to
-keep them up when they are flying, and perhaps
-it helps them to start as well.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/098.jpg" width="500" height="442" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Cockchafer Raising its Wing-covers
-    just before taking Flight</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Of course you have all heard of the wonderful
-flying machines which are now being
-made. To fly at all, you must be able to do
-three things: lift yourself up, keep yourself
-up, and move about. If you can do these
-three things just as quickly and just as
-slowly as you want to, you will be able to
-fly perfectly. The hardest puzzle of all is
-how to make a machine which will keep itself
-up (and the right way up too) without moving
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">{99}</a></span>
-about very quickly. This is what many birds
-can do so beautifully, and I expect that in time
-(all great inventions take a long time to make
-perfect, and they are never the work of one man
-alone, but rather of one man helped by the work
-of many men who lived before him) machines
-will be made in which men will be able to fly
-as perfectly as birds. At present they only fly
-as perfectly as beetles, but that they should be
-able to do this is a very wonderful thing. The
-great difference, in flying, between a beetle and
-a bird like a gull, is that the beetle has to keep
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">{100}</a></span>
-going full speed all the time, or else he will
-tumble down to the ground, while a bird like a
-gull can poise balanced in the air, with just a
-flap or turn of his wings now and then to keep
-himself the right way up.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/099.jpg" width="500" height="425" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Churchyard Beetle</span><br />
-    When this Beetle is cross, he puts his head down, and rears
-    up backwards as if he were going to kick</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-center">
-  <img src="images/100.jpg" width="125" height="107" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">{101}</a></div>
-
- <h2>BUNNY RABBIT<br />
- <small>(LADY DAY)</small></h2>
-
-<p class="center">AUTHOR'S NOTE</p>
-
-<div class="small">
-
-<p class="indent2"><span class="uppercase">There</span> are "go-to-bury"
-rabbits and "stub" rabbits. The "go-to-bury" rabbits have the longest
-ears, but the "stub" rabbits, as any stoat will tell you, are the best
-for dinner.</p>
-
-<p class="indent2">Moreover, there are rabbits and bunny rabbits&mdash;but
-all were bunny rabbits once.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/101.jpg" width="200" height="254" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">Bunny</span>
-Rabbit missed the bluebells, though these rang in his birth.</p>
-
-<p>Up rose the kingly foxgloves, tier upon tier of them pink-purple, but
-Bunny Rabbit missed these too.</p>
-
-<p>A golden world&mdash;the
-ragwort blazing on the slope, below the mellowing
-corn-field, and, mantling primrose hills, the
-dawn.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">{102}</a></span>
-Now Bunny Rabbit was ready.</p>
-
-<p>The burrow winds in four sharp turns, and, at
-each one, he stubbed his nose. This through a
-mad desire to keep near Mother; for Mother's
-tail bobbed in quick jerks, shaving each corner
-to a hair, and he and all his brothers raced to
-catch it. They reached the entrance packed as
-one, but Bunny Rabbit, squirming clear, shot
-past the uplifted paw, butted his waiting Father,
-flung off him like a smoke-puff, and landed on
-his back six feet below.</p>
-
-<p>That is why he has a separate history.</p>
-
-<p>It was indeed sharp change of circumstance.
-The nursery had been pitch-black, though one
-short gleam of light had reached it daily. That
-was when Mother Rabbit snatched her food,
-and sealed the entrance up for fear of Father.
-At other times she screened her babies' eyes.
-So now the sunshine blinded Bunny Rabbit,
-and pointed grass-stems pricked a skin which
-nothing harder than breast-fur had touched.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">{103}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/103.jpg" width="500" height="368" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">AND LANDED ON HIS BACK SIX FEET BELOW</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>He took some minutes to collect his wits, then
-twisted upright, and, with frightened eyes, sought
-guidance.</p>
-
-  <div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">{104}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/104a.jpg" width="125" height="111" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>But for the woolscrap all
-would have been well.</p>
-
-<p>Mother Rabbit was close at
-hand, feeding his brothers with
-small sprigs of green. Father
-Rabbit was close too. The sight of his lost
-wife had softened him. He purred approval.
-He licked the children's noses.</p>
-
-<p>Assuredly the lost would have been found,
-but for the woolscrap. The woolscrap fluttered,
-wind-borne, down the slope, and Bunny Rabbit
-nature-taught, went after it.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/104b.jpg" width="125" height="103" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>It led him far.</p>
-
-<p>It caught on brambles and then flicked away.
-It plunged in little valleys. It mounted little
-hills. It bobbed and jerked and twisted, and
-Bunny Rabbit, panting hard, pursued.</p>
-
-<p>At last he caught it, checked upon a grass-stem,
-and&mdash;<i>it wasn't Mother after all</i>!</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/105.jpg" width="500" height="434" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">It wasn't Mother after all!</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Bunny Rabbit sat down bewildered. He
-was hot with running; his
-ears were prickly, his coat
-was rumpled. He combed
-his ears out, one by one,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">{105}</a></span>
-brushed down his face, and
-nibbled all the fur that he could reach. Then
-he felt better.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 284px;">
-  <img src="images/106.jpg" width="284" height="300" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">He combed his ears out, one by one</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The morning breeze gained appetite and sent
-the woolscrap once more on its travels. Bunny
-Rabbit took no heed of it&mdash;he watched and
-heard the awakening of the wood. Bird notes,
-that in the burrow had been restful, now
-screamed and whistled in his ear. Out from
-the shelter-side of leaves, out from the heart of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">{106}</a></span>
-flowers, out from the grass-stems and from
-earth itself, came whirring, humming, buzzing insects. In this new
-myriad-peopled world there seemed small room for loneliness. A red mouse
-bobbed up from his
-hole, stared at him curiously, then whisked
-about and vanished. Bright eyes bejewelled
-the grass-tufts. Here a flick-footed lizard,
-here a slow-trailing blindworm, here a squat
-toad. The day-moths woke and flitted leaf
-to leaf. The bee-fly clambered up the thyme,
-poised hovering, vanished slantwise, and
-vanishing, reappeared.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/107a.jpg" width="125" height="75" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>This was full entertainment, and Bunny
-Rabbit stared round-eyed. He stared till
-hunger gripped him. His brothers, a bare
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">{107}</a></span>
-hundred yards away, already had
-acquired the art of nibbling. He
-had no teacher, and no wits by
-which to teach himself. So,
-though food lay on every side, he starved. He
-felt a craving he had never known; a tightening
-of his fluffy body; an ache for Mother.
-Mother would set things straight for him, but
-where to find her was beyond his reasoning.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/107b.jpg" width="113" height="125" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>He wandered aimlessly this way and that;
-he nosed the bushes aimlessly; he
-stepped on Berus the Adder, because
-to him an adder, neatly coiled, was
-merely speckled ground.</p>
-
-<p>Berus the Adder, though infuriate,
-forebore to strike. Venom is far too precious
-to be squandered, and baby rabbits are too
-large to swallow. He swayed his ugly head,
-and slowly, very slowly, he stretched forward.
-This was enough for Bunny
-Rabbit, who spun about and left
-the wind behind.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">{108}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 338px;">
-  <img src="images/108.jpg" width="338" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">HE WATCHED AND HEARD THE AWAKENING OF THE WOOD</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/107c.jpg" width="105" height="125" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>Before he had been lured by
-Hope, now Terror thrust her
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">{109}</a></span>
-goad at him. He leapt two thorn-stumps
-blindly, and, stumbling,
-plunged head-deep into
-the ant-hill.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/109a.jpg" width="200" height="171" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>The ant-hill covers two
-square yards of ground,
-and every inch of it is
-peopled. Though soft, it
-is no place to fall on. Its citizens resent intrusion&mdash;nay,
-more, resent it actively.</p>
-
-<p>When Bunny Rabbit reached the grass he
-felt the pricking of a thousand needles. The
-pain and smart of them half maddened him.
-He rolled upon his back; he scraped his neck
-on stones; he writhed; he bit himself.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/109b.jpg" width="125" height="125" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>The pain eased as his torturers dropped off
-him. Once more he tried to run, but in ten
-yards his strength was gone. His fore-paws
-flopped and stumbled, his
-hind paws dragged, his
-nose was bruised, his
-coat was hot and steamy.
-So he flung down bewildered,
-scraped an imaginary
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">{110}</a></span>
-bed (a poor half-hearted scraping), slid out his
-feet, and lay full length,
-eyes closed.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 182px;">
-  <img src="images/110.jpg" width="182" height="200" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Berus the Adder</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Nothing now
-seemed to matter
-much. The hornet moth
-came whirring past his
-ears, he never heard it;
-the drone fly danced
-upon his nose, he never
-felt it; the Man lay
-almost at his side, he never saw him. Poor
-tired-out baby! Nature had ordered sleep and
-so he slept.</p>
-
-<p class="center gap-between">*****</p>
-
-<p>The Man woke slowly. Nature had been
-his comfort, too, though sleep had not refreshed
-him. He rose half-dreaming, with a smile.
-"All right, little girl," he said; then his face
-tightened. "It's the same place," he muttered,
-"just where we lost the locket. First bluebell,
-then foxglove, then ragwort; blue, purple, and
-gold. It was the gold she loved."</p>
-
-<p>The woodland rang with voices, but Bunny
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">{111}</a></span>
-Rabbit slept until man spoke. Then he leapt
-up and found himself a prisoner.</p>
-
-<p>"You sha'n't be hurt, Bunny," said the
-Man.</p>
-
-<p>Bunny Rabbit ceased his wriggling, and
-lay quite limp, his eyes upturned, his nose
-a-quiver.</p>
-
-<p>"Why lying in the open?" said the Man
-"foolish, foolish Bunny. What's to be done
-with you? Stoats and foxes and hawks,
-Bunny. You can't be left, that's certain. You
-can't be taken to your Mother, for I don't know
-your Mother. You can't be taken to your hole,
-for I don't know your hole. Hungry, Bunny?
-You look as though you'd travelled. Try some
-grass."</p>
-
-<p>Bunny Rabbit knew nothing of grass and
-kept his teeth tight-clenched.</p>
-
-<p>"You must eat something," said the Man.</p>
-
-<p>He loosed one hand to reach a groundsel-top,
-and Bunny Rabbit, squirming clear, slipped
-deep into his pocket.</p>
-
-<p>"Well, it's your own choice, Bunny. Now
-you come home with me."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">{112}</a></span>
-It was dark and warm and soft inside the
-pocket. The Man took swinging downhill
-strides, and, at each stride, the folds changed
-shape. Now they were loose and twisty, and
-Bunny Rabbit stretched full length to fill them.
-Now they were tightened to a ball, and Bunny
-Rabbit tightened as the centre.</p>
-
-<p>The Man paused as he reached the corn, and
-stepped two paces up again. He stooped, and
-Bunny Rabbit was inverted. He rose, and
-Bunny Rabbit found his feet. But now he
-was more cramped than ever. He lay deep in
-the farthest corner. Over, and on all sides of
-him, was packed a stifling mass of green.</p>
-
-<p>Then Bunny Rabbit used his teeth, axe-fashion
-at first, but soon to better purpose.
-The lesson that he should have long since
-learnt was now enforced by circumstance.</p>
-
-<p>He bit and tasted.</p>
-
-<p class="center gap-between">*****</p>
-
-<p>"Bunny Rabbit," said the Man, "your ears
-are abnormal."</p>
-
-<p>Bunny Rabbit lay crouched upon the hearthrug,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">{113}</a></span>
-blinking. At first he had found covert in
-the curtains, but these had been looped up.
-Then he had squeezed behind the bookcase and
-been, with difficulty, extracted. Then he had
-set himself to dig. The carpet had repaid him
-with some fluff. The doormat and the wicker
-chair seemed promising, but he made little headway,
-and so had lain down tired.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/113.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Lay full Length, Eyes closed</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Very abnormal ears, Bunny," the Man went
-on. "This smacks of the domestic. Then
-why so frightened?"</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">{114}</a></span>
-But Bunny Rabbit was more tired than
-frightened.</p>
-
-<p>"More food, Bunny?" A bunch of green
-had lain upon the floor but every scrap had
-vanished.</p>
-
-<p>"You've had enough for one day, Bunny.
-It's bedtime, up you come."</p>
-
-<p>So Bunny Rabbit slept that night on blankets,
-he and the moonshine. The Man tossed restlessly
-and Bunny Rabbit watched his moving
-lips. Twilight crept in soft-footed, and Bunny
-Rabbit took three little jumps and wormed
-inside the bed-clothes.</p>
-
-<p class="center gap-between">*****</p>
-
-<p>"Slept well, Bunny?" said the Man; "it's
-more than I have. I've made my mind up,
-Bunny. I'm going. I can't bear the house. I
-can't bear the rooms. They're empty, empty,
-empty."</p>
-
-<p>The Man stepped slowly down the stairs and
-Bunny Rabbit stumbled after him. He reached
-the hall and paused, then caught up Bunny
-Rabbit, and once more ascended. He entered
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">{115}</a></span>
-every upstairs room and gazed as though to
-clinch them on his memory. He entered every
-downstairs room, and in one room, the loneliest
-of all, he sat and cried his heart out.</p>
-
-<p class="center gap-between">*****</p>
-
-<p>"We're homeless, Bunny Rabbit," said the
-Man. "But you're the better off, for your
-home's somewhere here."</p>
-
-<p>They had got half-way up the slope. The
-Man stood tall among the ragwort, and Bunny
-Rabbit, with wide, frightened eyes, clung to his
-shoulder.</p>
-
-<p>The Man stooped down, and Bunny Rabbit
-slid to earth.</p>
-
-<p>"Now you must find your home or make
-one," said the Man, and Bunny Rabbit straightway
-tried to make one. He plunged his forepaws
-in the ground and scratched. The dust
-flew out behind and, in the midst, shot something
-hard and glittering.</p>
-
-<p>It was a small gold locket.</p>
-
-<p>The Man bent down and picked it up. He
-opened it and with dimmed eyes he kissed it.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">{116}</a></span>
-"You've done me a good turn," he said&mdash;"of
-course it's pure coincidence," and Bunny Rabbit
-watched him out of sight.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 373px;">
-  <img src="images/116.jpg" width="373" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Bunny Rabbit watched Him out of Sight</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">{117}</a></div>
-
- <h2>A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX<br />
- <small>(MAY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/117.jpg" width="125" height="154" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">I wonder</span>
-how many of my young readers know why these dainty flying
-creatures are called "Butterflies"?</p>
-
-<p>We all know what butter is, and we know, too, that there are quite a
-number of English words which begin with "butter." It
-is not a pretty beginning, is it? But there it is.
-Let us think of a few&mdash;<i>butter</i>-fly, <i>butter</i>-cup,
-<i>butter</i>-wort, <i>butter</i>-fingers, <i>butter</i>-scotch&mdash;why,
-one can think of half a dozen straight away.</p>
-
-<p>Now this shows us clearly that "butter" is
-a very old word, and that the people of long
-ago (who were much less clever than we are,
-perhaps) must have used it quite naturally
-when they wanted to describe anything which
-was squashy, or pasty, or greasy, or slippery,
-or yellow.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/118.jpg" width="200" height="285" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Brimstone Butterfly</span><br />
-    After whom all "Butterflies" are probably called</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Look at the picture at the top of the next
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">{118}</a></span>
-page. I wish I could have given it to you in its proper colours. It
-looks much nicer like that. Look at it carefully. No other English
-butterfly has the same pretty curves to its wings, and some of you, I
-dare say, will know what it is
-by its shape. But I must tell those who do
-not know. It is a Brimstone Butterfly, and
-its colour is bright, bright yellow with an
-orange spot in the middle of each wing (you
-can only see one wing in the picture, the
-other three are hidden behind it; one way to
-tell a butterfly from a moth is to remember
-that butterflies' wings close standing up, but
-nearly all moths' wings close down flat).</p>
-
-<p>It is almost certain that this insect was the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">{119}</a></span>
-first insect to be called "Butter"-fly because of
-its butter colour. When people began to see
-that there were other pretty flying things of
-much the same shape, though of quite different
-colours, they called them all Butterflies after
-this first one.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 462px;">
-  <img src="images/119.jpg" width="462" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Red Admiral</span><br />
-    A Butterfly of many beautiful colours</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>So we speak, nowadays, without ever thinking
-of how funny it really is, of blue butterflies
-and white butterflies and black butterflies and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">{120}</a></span>
-purple butterflies, and red and yellow and
-green butterflies&mdash;all the colours of the rainbow,
-in fact.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/120.jpg" width="500" height="407" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Purple Emperor</span><br />
-    The most gorgeous Butterfly in England, though not by any
-    means the most beautiful</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>We would hardly talk of black butter or
-purple butter, would we?</p>
-
-<p>Some of you will perhaps wonder why the
-Brimstone Butterfly was the first to be noticed
-when there are so many others which are just
-as common.</p>
-
-<p>I think I can tell you.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 125px;">
-  <img src="images/121.jpg" width="125" height="124" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Clifden Blue</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Brimstone is almost always the first
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">{121}</a></span>
-butterfly to be seen in the spring. Most butterflies
-die towards the autumn, and leave eggs
-behind, which hatch out in the following year,
-but the Brimstone, and a few others, sleep
-through the cold winter months and come out
-in the first warm days of spring and <i>then</i> lay
-their eggs. The Brimstone comes out first of
-all, often quite early in February, and so he is
-the first butterfly that is likely to be noticed
-in the year.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps his coming out at a time when cows
-began to give more milk, and butter began to
-be more plentiful, had something to do with his
-being called "butterfly," but I
-think that his colour had more to
-do with it.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 308px;">
-  <img src="images/122.jpg" width="308" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Swallow-Tail Butterfly</span><br />
-    Almost a paint-box in itself. It will give you blue, red,
-    black and yellow. It is only found in the Cambridgeshire Fens</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>What lovely colours butterflies
-are! Have you ever fancied a
-butterfly paint-box? Let us think of a few
-common colours, and see how we could fill it.
-Suppose we wanted a blue? Why we should
-have a whole family of butterflies "The Blues"
-to choose from, and we should be just as well
-off for blacks and browns. For red we could
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">{122}</a></span>
-take the beautiful scarlet ribbon of the Red
-Admiral. "Why is he called Admiral?" you
-ask. Well, Admiral is the same as Admirable,
-and his old name was Red Admirable.
-For purple we should have the Purple Emperor
-and the Purple Hair-streak&mdash;there is
-no purple quite so glorious as the purple that
-these have on their wings. For orange, the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">{123}</a></span>
-Orange-tip and the Clouded Yellow. For
-yellow, the Brimstone and several others. For
-white, of course, the Whites. Green might
-bother us a little, but there is one English
-butterfly, the Green Hair-streak, whose wings
-are a beautiful green underneath. As he is
-our only green butterfly I give you his picture.
-He is the upper butterfly in the first picture
-and, as you see, quite a little one.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/123.jpg" width="500" height="389" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Black Pepper Moth</span><br />
-    Probably quite the blackest Moth we have. They vary very
-    much in colouring though</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>We must not forget gold and silver. When
-I was young, I expected to find gold and silver
-in a really nice paint-box, and I do not suppose
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">{124}</a></span>
-young people have changed much since then.
-Silver we should have no trouble about. There
-is a big family of butterflies called the Fritillaries,
-who have wonderful patches and ribbons
-of silver on their wings. I do not think you will
-find gold, except perhaps a little gold powder,
-on any English butterfly, but you will find it on
-several chrysalises. Indeed, Chrysalis means
-"the little golden one," and the name was given
-to these queer spiky things because gold
-patches were so often seen on them.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/124.jpg" width="500" height="417" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Silver Washed Fritillary</span><br />
-    The silver is in broad bands on the under wings</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">{125}</a></span>
-I have seen little pictures made with the
-scales of butterflies' wings, with blue skies and
-green trees and everything. So you see a
-butterfly paint-box is not altogether a make-believe,
-though it is not an easy paint-box for
-young people to paint with.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">{127}</a></div>
-
- <h2>TWO WONDERFUL WASPS<br />
- <small>(JUNE)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/128.jpg" width="200" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This is one of Spinipes' burrows opened up.
- There is an egg at the bottom on the left-hand side and a
- caterpillar on the right-hand side. The egg is hanging by a
- silk thread, but you can't see this</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">I expect</span>
-you all must know the Common
-Yellow Wasps&mdash;the kind that come buzzing
-into the jam at tea-time; and I want to tell
-you this about them&mdash;that I don't think they
-ever really get angry if there is jam about and
-you leave them alone, though, when small
-people jump up and scream, and edge away
-from the table, and make bad shots at them
-with spoons, they get so frightened and
-bewildered, poor things, that they may sting
-somebody, because they feel they really must
-do something exciting.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps some of you do <i>not</i> know that
-there are seven different kinds of these Yellow
-Wasps to be met with in this country of ours,
-and I should be surprised to hear that any of
-you know <i>much</i> about the two Black Wasps
-whose story I am going to tell you. I say
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">{128}</a></span>
-"black," because they <i>look</i> black, though both
-of them have yellow girdles on their  bodies. I wish they had English
-names; for I am sure they both deserve them; and English names are much
-easier to remember than Latin ones. However, Latin names are the only
-ones I know for them, so we must make the best of it, and call one of
-them Spinipes (you must read this as if it were Spiny Peas) and the
-other Crabro.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/129.jpg" width="200" height="253" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This is a little picture of Spinipes
-    bringing up a grub, which she is clasping beneath her body</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>We will take Spinipes first.</p>
-
-<p>If you look at the picture on the opposite page,
-you will see what she is like, and, if you look at
-the picture in Spinipes the Sand-Wasp (p. 151)
-you will see one of the clever things she does.</p>
-
-<p>She is building a little tube out of sand
-which is so delicate that the slightest touch
-from one of our own clumsy fingers will
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">{129}</a></span>
-knock it down like a card-house, but it is
-strong enough for her to crawl inside; and
-she has to crawl inside very often, as you
-will see. I expect you will all want to know
-how she builds it, and what it is for. I will
-tell you how she builds it to begin with. You
-must know first that she has a pair of jaws
-which work quite differently from ours. Instead
-of moving up and down, they move
-across each other from side to side just like a
-pair of scissors.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/131.jpg" width="200" height="213" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This is the Spinipes' grub feeding on the
-    little green caterpillars</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The first thing that Spinipes does is to work
-this little pair of scissors in the sand so as to
-make a little hole. I am showing you on page 148 a picture of her when
-she is just starting to dig. Every little pellet of sand she digs out
-she puts carefully round the outside of the hole, and presently she
-glues them all together. She carries the glue somewhere
-inside her, and brings it out when she wants it,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">{130}</a></span>
-Then she digs a little deeper and glues another
-layer of sand pellets on the top of the first
-one, and in a very short time she has dug a
-hole about two inches deep, and built a little
-tube round the top of it, which is made of the
-little sand-pellets she has brought out of the
-hole. Sometimes the tube stands straight up,
-but more often it bends about half-way and
-curves downwards. When she has finished it
-off, and is sure that the hole is deep enough,
-and the tube is long enough, she goes right
-down to the bottom and lays an egg, and she
-hangs the egg by a tiny thread (which she also
-makes herself, but I don't know how she does
-it) to the side of the hole a little above the
-bottom. You will be able to see this in the
-picture, but you must remember that in this
-and in some of the other pictures the sand has
-been cut away so that you can see exactly how
-the hole goes. Then, if it is a bright, sunny
-day, as it usually is when she begins digging,
-she flies away, and in about half an hour's
-time comes back carrying something clasped
-tight against her body. What do you think
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">{131}</a></span>
-that is? It is a small green caterpillar. She
-stops a moment at the entrance of the tube, pushes the caterpillar down
-in front of her, and disappears after it. In a few seconds she is out
-again and off, and in another quarter of
-an hour or so she is back again with another
-caterpillar and so on, without ever tiring,
-through six or seven hours of a hot June or
-July day.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/132.jpg" width="200" height="409" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This shows you the cocoon which Spinipes'
-    grub makes for itself. I have opened it to show you the
-    grub, and also the little partition in the shaft above the
-    grub, which is the last thing Spinipes herself makes</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>I expect you will have guessed what the
-caterpillars are for. They are food for the
-wasp grub when it hatches out of the egg.
-Generally each hole has between twenty and
-thirty little caterpillars in it, and sometimes,
-when caterpillars are scarce, the Mother Wasp
-has to work hard for three or four days. If
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">{132}</a></span>
-you dig into a hole yourself and look at the
-store of little caterpillars, you will see there is
-something the matter
-with them. They seem
-to be alive and yet they
-don't seem to be able to
-crawl. Wise men say
-that the wasp stings
-them just enough to
-make them drowsy so
-that they can't crawl
-out of the hole, and
-can't hurt the wasp
-grub by jostling up
-against it. It wouldn't
-do to kill them, because
-then they would go bad in the hole
-before the grub had time to eat them. This
-sounds rather cruel, but I don't think it is
-really, because it is quite certain that the
-caterpillars cannot feel as we should perhaps
-feel, and we may be quite sure that in the
-wonderful Nature World everything is
-arranged for the best, so that only the right
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">{133}</a></span>
-number of wasp-grubs may be properly fed
-and grow up to do what it is their duty to
-do, and only the right number of small green
-caterpillars may grow up also.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/133.jpg" width="200" height="225" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">The little beetle that the caterpillars turn
-    into. It is sitting on its own open-work cocoon, from which
-    it has just hatched out. The picture makes it about twice
-    its real size</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>You will wonder, I expect, why the Mother
-Wasp troubles to make the little tube above
-the hole. I think I can tell you one reason
-and you must remember this, because it was
-just by chance that I found it out. One hot
-morning in June I watched Mother Spinipes
-bringing seven caterpillars to her hole. Then
-a heavy thunderstorm came on, and the rain came down in buckets, and I
-had to run away for shelter. Late in the evening when it had cleared up
-a little, I thought I would like to see what had happened
-to the tube I had been watching, and I
-went back to the place and found that the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">{134}</a></span>
-rain had knocked it all to pieces. But I
-saw something much more interesting than
-this. The tube had been on the face of a
-sand-cliff, and in a crack close by there
-was an ants' nest. I found that the ants
-were running down the wasp's hole and
-bringing out the caterpillars as fast as they
-could (I saw them take six away), and taking
-them along the face of the cliff into their own
-stronghold. Now the tube that stands out
-from the sand somehow frightens the ants (I
-never saw an ant climb out along the tube and
-down inside it), and so I think that one of the
-reasons for the tube must be that it keeps
-away ants and creatures of that kind who
-crawl about on the face of the sand cliff and
-like eating caterpillars.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/135a.jpg" width="500" height="384" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">BEFORE THE THUNDERSTORM</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">{135}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/135b.jpg" width="500" height="371" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">AFTER THE THUNDERSTORM</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/136.jpg" width="200" height="180" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This is a large picture of Crabro, about
-    twice as big as she really is</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It was a long time
-before I found out what kind of creature the
-caterpillars stored by Spinipes would have
-turned into if they had not been caught. I
-thought that it would have been a small moth,
-but I was quite wrong. At different times I
-took several caterpillars away from the tubes,
-and tried to bring them up, but it was of no
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">{136}</a></span>
-use, for they all died because they could not
-eat. One day, however, I happened to be
-sweeping with a butterfly-net in a field of
-lucerne&mdash;it is great fun sweeping, and you
-should try it, for you never know what you
-may get next&mdash;and I swept up what I knew
-at once was the self-same little green caterpillar
-that Spinipes stocked her larder with.
-She <i>always</i> brought the same kind. Well, I
-got a good many of them by sweeping in the
-lucerne, and brought them up carefully, and,
-in due time, they spun little open-work cocoons
-on the lucerne leaves which I fed them with, and at last turned into
-small, brown, long-nosed beetles. I need not trouble you with the Latin
-names of these beetles, but I may tell you
-that they are a kind of weevil which is very
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">{137}</a></span>
-common and very destructive to clover and
-plants of that kind. So, if we consider that
-every Mother Spinipes lays eight or nine eggs, and stocks eight or nine
-burrows each with about thirty destructive little caterpillars, we must
-allow that she is a very useful little wasp.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/137.jpg" width="200" height="251" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This is Crabro looking out of her hole. The
-    front of her face is covered with bright silver hair, so
-    fine that it looks like a silver plate. The picture is
-    twice her real size</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But I am not
-sure that she is more useful to man than
-the other little wasp I have to tell of, the
-Crabro. I found out her usefulness quite
-by chance, and I expect you will like to
-hear how. To begin with, I must tell
-you that all the "Digger" Wasps, as some
-people call them, Spinipes and the Crabros
-and several other kinds, store their burrows
-with insect food for their grubs to feed on.</p>
-
-<p>But each one has her own particular idea as
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">{138}</a></span>
-to what is the <i>best</i>
-food. One will use nothing but little spiders, another nothing but
-little flies, another, like Spinipes, nothing but little beetle grubs.
-And the queer part is that they seldom seem to make any mistake as to
-the kind of food they want. It will be <i>one</i> kind of spider, and
-<i>one</i> kind of fly,
-and <i>one</i> kind of beetle-grub. If there are
-ever more than one kind, they are always
-very near relations, and, I suppose, taste very
-much alike.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/138.jpg" width="200" height="357" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This is how the cocoon looked when I had
-    taken the sawdust away. The plug of sawdust above it leads
-    into the round hole in the wood</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Now Crabro's store consists of
-really <i>large</i> flies, blue-bottles, and green-bottles&mdash;I
-expect most of you know the
-beautiful shiny green-bottle fly whose proper
-name is Caesar&mdash;and how little Crabro
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">{139}</a></span>
-manages to overcome and carry off large
-bottle-flies who are several times her own
-size and several times her own weight, I cannot
-tell. But I have found out for certain
-that she does so, and the pictures will show
-you how I found out.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/139.jpg" width="200" height="373" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">At the bottom of the picture you will see
-    one of Crabro's stores of blue-bottles, and if you look
-    carefully you will see one of the fly's wings stretching
-    out of it</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Last autumn a dangerous bough had to be
-taken down from the top of a high elm-tree
-in my garden. It was perhaps sixty feet above the ground and it came
-down with a crash and broke up into little pieces. I picked up one of
-these tubes and galleries, which I knew were insects' work. But there
-was something much more exciting
-than this. A number of the galleries had blind
-ends to them, and at the bottom of these were
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">{140}</a></span>
-masses of dead blue-bottles, tightly packed, which rested on small
-pillows of sawdust, and had long plugs of sawdust above them.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/140.jpg" width="200" height="353" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This is what the piece of elm-bough looked
-    like. You will be able to see the little tunnels, and the
-    stores of blue-bottles, which are black-looking, and the
-    plugs of sawdust, in which the pupa cases of the wasp-grubs
-    are hidden. You can see one pupa about half way up</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>I opened one of the long sawdust plugs and found, as I half expected to
-find, that at the end of it next to the blue-bottles, was a small
-brown papery cocoon, and that inside the
-cocoon was a wasp grub. I need hardly tell
-you that I collected a lot of the wood, and kept
-it carefully through the winter, and tried to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">{141}</a></span>
-make the little grubs as much at home as if
-they had stayed up in their tree. To do this I
-had to keep the wood in moist and rather dark
-surroundings. Then when the spring came
-round I sometimes put the wood in the sunshine,
-when it was not too hot, and in the first
-week in June I was rewarded for my trouble,
-for the little wasps hatched out in dozens, and
-so I was able to find out what they were.</p>
-
-<p>Look up to the top of the trees some warm
-summer day, and think of the blue-bottle
-hunt which may be going on above us, and
-of the wonderful little hunter, Crabro.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/141.jpg" width="300" height="381" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">This is one of the cocoons of Crabro in the
-    elm-bough. Crabro is just going to hatch out. You can see
-    the little black hole where she has started gnawing</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">{143}</a></div>
-
- <h2>SPINIPES THE SAND-WASP<br />
- <small>(MIDSUMMER DAY)</small></h2>
-
-<p class="center small">AUTHOR'S NOTE</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">{144}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/143.jpg" width="125" height="168" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<div class="small">
-
-<p class="nodent"><span class="uppercase">This</span> insect-tale is based on
-observations of fact extending
-over several summers. It may
-interest some of my readers
-to know the scientific names
-of the chief characters mentioned.
-I do not think that
-any of them have popular
-names. The heroine is the
-solitary Sand-Wasp <i>Odynerus
-Spinipes</i>, a blacker and somewhat
-smaller insect than the familiar yellow Wasps
-of Town and Garden. The Red King and the Black
-Queen are the male and female of a solitary Bumble
-Bee, <i>Anthophora Pilipes</i>. The Mistress of the
-Robes is a "Cuckoo" Bee, <i>Melecta armata</i>, which
-attends on Anthophora, and lays its eggs in the cells
-made by Anthophora for her own eggs. The grubs of
-both feed on the honey and pollen which <i>Anthophora</i>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">{145}</a></span>
-alone has the trouble of procuring. <i>O. Spinipes</i> has
-several cuckoos, the most officious being the jewel
-flies, <i>Chrysis ignita</i> and <i>Chrysis bidentata</i>, whose
-grubs, I fancy, eat the grub of Spinipes, as well as
-the food stored up for it. The Ophion is a common
-Ichneumon fly, and the beetle-grubs belong to a very
-common and destructive weevil, <i>Hypera variabilis</i>.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">The</span>
-Sand Cliff splits the old gravel-pit in
-two, and, jutting southward, fronts the
-mid-day sun. The cuttings driven east and
-west of it have long been clothed with furze
-and briar and nettle. Rank grass conceals the
-cart-track round its base, and, on its summit, a
-thin, root-bound soil gives foothold to a straggling
-hedge of privet.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 347px;">
-  <img src="images/144.jpg" width="347" height="599" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">THE SAND CLIFF SPLITS THE OLD GRAVEL-PIT IN TWO</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Man, needing gravel only, scorned the sand;
-and, as he turned his back on it, came Nature,
-gently mothering; and brought it warmth, and
-light, and life.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/146.jpg" width="300" height="204" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">First the Wild Bees, Red Kings,
-    Black Queens</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>First the wild Bees, Red Kings, Black
-Queens, fringe-footed, shaggy-coated. These
-made a chambered palace of the cliff, and
-peopled it within a summer. With them came
-Lords-in-Waiting and their Ladies, in liveries
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">{146}</a></span>
-of black velvet, ermine-faced; and, after these, a
-fluttering gauze-winged host&mdash;jewel-flies ablaze
-with green and blue and crimson, trim slender-waisted
-digger-wasps, long-streamered swart
-ichneumons. And, last of all, came Spinipes
-herself.</p>
-
-<p>Straight from the blue she dropped on May's
-last morning, swerved through the hum and
-racket of the Bees, poised with her smoke-grey
-wings a-whir, and lighted softly on the centre
-ledge, her ebony body mirroring the sun, her
-five gold girdles blazing.</p>
-
-<p>Down dropped a Red King at her side. He
-stared at her right royally, and kept right royal
-silence, yet there was kindness in his yellow face, and kindness in the
-purr of his departure.</p>
-
-<p>Down dropped a Black Queen in his place, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">{147}</a></span>
-danced and hummed about her, and measured
-her slim-waistedness, and buzzed her disapproval.&mdash;"What
-is it?" asked she snappishly.
-"Why does it come in this get-up? Where has it left its furs?"</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/147.jpg" width="300" height="272" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Down dropped a Red King at her side. He
-    stared at her right royally</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"It never had furs," said a voice behind her. It was her Mistress of
-the Robes.</p>
-
-<p>"I know the family, Ma'am. Queer clothes,
-of course. But artists, Ma'am, artists to the
-toe-tips."</p>
-
-<p>"Artists in what?" said the Black Queen.</p>
-
-<p>"In Sand, Ma'am, in Sand. See, she's
-starting now."</p>
-
-<p>"That's hive-bee's work," said the Black
-Queen contemptuously.</p>
-
-<p>"The art comes at the finish, Ma'am&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>"Well, call me when it comes," said the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">{148}</a></span>
-Black Queen, "and keep her off the nurseries, and clean that eleventh
-cell of mine, and wait till I come back. She soared up skywards,
-fussily, cleared the cliff's head, circled three times about, and set a
-straight course south.</p>
-
-<p>"Good riddance!" said the Mistress of the Robes.</p>
-
-<p>"They're like that everywhere," said Spinipes.
-"What are her nurseries to me? Black
-Queens and black sand go together. Now
-this is red sand. I feel the grip and bind
-of it."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 125px;">
-  <img src="images/148.jpg" width="125" height="247" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">In Sand, Ma'am, in Sand. See, she's
-    starting now</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>She was quite right. The ledge was rain-washed
-silt. Sunshine had bleached the outer
-crust of it, but, under this, its substance was
-brick-red&mdash;fine ground stuff too, damp, clingy,
-easily tunnelled, and easily smarmed into a
-hold-fast mortar.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">{149}</a></span>
-"In that case," said the Mistress of the Robes,
-"I may as well be going."</p>
-
-<p>Slowly she floated off the ledge, yet kept her
-face towards it. Slowly she tacked from side
-to side, in dipping, widening sweeps. Slowly she
-passed the cliff's east edge, and disappeared.</p>
-
-<p><i>Then</i> Spinipes commenced to dig in earnest.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/149.jpg" width="300" height="209" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"Well, call me when it comes," said the
-    Black Queen</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Her scissor-jaws worked viciously, carved
-four-square pellets from the sun-baked crust,
-gripped them and flung them backwards. As
-she engaged the softer soil, she added feverish
-foot-work, and scraped, and rasped, and
-scrabbled it, and kicked it back in dust-clouds.
-Her head was quickly buried, next her waist,
-and, presently, she disappeared completely.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">{150}</a></span>
-But not for long.</p>
-
-<p>She backed up to the surface, dragging a
-sand-load underneath her body. She shook
-this clear, and, without resting, dived afresh.
-Ten loads in all she raised, and each one meant
-a longer spell below. For she had more to do
-than dig. From end to end her shaft must
-needs be glazed&mdash;and this meant patient mouth-work,
-deft steadying touches as the mortar set,
-and skill to keep her tube's round symmetry,
-and guide it in a gentle curve to end in quiet
-darkness. Three inches down she sank, and,
-at the bottom, drove a slant, and hollowed out
-a store-room.</p>
-
-<p>With this the first stage ended. She left her
-shaft, and, poising in mid-air, made survey
-of the ledge. To right she swerved, to left
-again, outwards and back, upwards and down,
-until its bearings east and west, from sky
-above, and earth below, were rooted in her
-memory.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/151.jpg" width="300" height="198" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap"><i>Then</i> Spinipes commenced to dig in
- earnest</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>So far, so good&mdash;her morning's work was
-done, the picture of it fixed into her mind.
-Upwards she soared until the receding cliff
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">{151}</a></span>
-shrunk to a splotch of brown. Once more she
-took her bearings and was satisfied, set her
-course east, and, with a dropping arrow's flight,
-came to the hill-top coppice. She landed on
-the bramble hedge which skirts its western
-clearing.</p>
-
-<p>"Good hunting, sister!" said the Ophion Fly.
-She sat on a high briar-leaf, her rainbow wings
-uplifted.</p>
-
-<p>"It's hardly time for that," said Spinipes.
-"To-morrow, p'raps. To-day I feed myself."</p>
-
-<p>"There's lucerne on the slope," the Ophion
-said, "and something underneath you."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/153.jpg" width="200" height="297" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"Good hunting, sister!" said the Ophion
-    Fly</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>There was a snap and flicker in the grass,
-and presently appeared a pygmy beetle, long-snouted,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">{152}</a></span>
-dusty-coated, trailing its slow legs
-wearily.</p>
-
-<p>"D'you <i>see</i> it?" said the Ophion Fly.</p>
-
-<p>"I see it, but what of it?"</p>
-
-<p>"It means good hunting, sister. Green
-grubs, black-headed, fatted. Too small for me,
-but just the size for you. You'll find them in
-the lucerne."</p>
-
-<p>"Thank you," said Spinipes, but she was half
-across the field, a dancing, filmy wisp of pink,
-wind-borne.</p>
-
-<p>A meal, and then to work, thought Spinipes.
-It must be done by sunset. It must. It
-must.</p>
-
-<p>From spray to spray she flitted. Flower
-after flower she robbed of its pale nectar. Bud
-after bud she nibbled. At last she found the
-food she sought, and, with her strength renewed,
-took flight. Upwards she soared; three times
-she circled round; then in a straight, unbroken
-course, whizzed to her shaft. Her pace was
-scarcely slackened as she entered. Her wings
-closed lengthways on her back, and, in a
-moment, she was at the bottom.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">{153}</a></span>
-Something was there before her.</p>
-
-<p>Something six legged, which kicked and squirmed and writhed.
-Something which coiled to a hard, slippery ball, and rolled away from
-capture.</p>
-
-<p>There was no space for it to pass, and yet there seemed no holding it.
-At last she pinned it with her feet, and, backing, dragged it upwards
-to the light. It was a radiant jewel fly, a squat,
-short-waisted, dumpy thing made glorious by
-its colour. Gems sparkled on it head to tail,
-sapphire and ruby, emerald and topaz, and, as
-it struggled, fire of gold blazed and died down
-upon its jerking body. Instinctively she shook
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">{154}</a></span>
-and worried it. Instinctively she flung it down
-the slope. Head over tail, tight-clenched, it spun,
-nor opened till it reached the grass below. Here
-it snapped out to shape again, took instant wing,
-and, with a glancing flight, regained the ledge.</p>
-
-<p>"An excellent shaft, Madam; quite excellent.
-No doubt you made it for a special
-purpose. Now I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
-
-<p>"Listen to me," said Spinipes, "and mark
-my every word. If you come near that shaft
-again&mdash;if you so much as touch it with your
-feet, I'll sting your prying life out."</p>
-
-<p>She charged at it full swing and chased it
-off the ledge.</p>
-
-<p>"An area sneak!" she muttered, as she dropt
-underground once more&mdash;"and over-dressed at
-that."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/155.jpg" width="200" height="292" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The last to cease from play was the
-    Rose-Chafer</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Below the walls showed signs of the encounter&mdash;it
-took ten minutes to repair their
-glazing. When this was done, she crept back
-to the entrance. It was high noon. A shimmery
-haze rose from the heated sand. The
-hum of work died fitfully away, as, one by one,
-the homing bees sought shade. The digger-wasps
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">{155}</a></span>
-dived deep into their holes; the hunting
-spiders hid themselves. These were the last to
-cease from work; the last to cease from play
-was the rose-chafer.</p>
-
-<p>Him the fierce blaze of heat impelled to bursts of clumsy flight.
-Across the pit and back again, and up and down the surface of the cliff,
-he whirred and swung at random. Soon even he grew listless, and crept
-within the shelter of the privet.</p>
-
-<p>The change came with a catspaw breeze,
-which rippled from the valley, and, in its quiet
-passing, fanned the cliff.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">{156}</a></span></p>
-
-<p>It brought back life and energy.</p>
-
-<p>Out flew the bees, a jostling, buzzing throng
-of them, see-sawing wildly up and down, swinging,
-reversing, wheeling. At length they towered
-and broke to work. Out crept the hunting
-spiders, zebra-coated; the fluttering, dancing,
-digger-wasps; the lightning-footed ants. Out,
-last of all, came Spinipes herself.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 461px;">
-  <img src="images/157.jpg" width="461" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Out flew the Bees</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Her first care was her toilet. She combed
-her long antennæ out and nibbled at each foot.
-A circling flight to stretch her wings ended
-where it had started; and, in a moment, she had
-plunged below. Two minutes she stayed underground,
-then came up slowly backwards. Between
-her jaws was a clean-cut sand pellet.
-She placed it on the rim of the shaft opening,
-and, with deft touches from her lips, cemented it
-in station. She danced about it joyously, with
-fluttery wings, with airy, buoyant feet, moistened
-it here, kneaded it there. Once more she
-dived and dragged a second pellet up, and fixed
-this too upon the rim. So diving, digging,
-fixing, shaping, she raised a low ring-parapet.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/158.jpg" width="200" height="224" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Hour after hour she toiled</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Hour after hour she toiled, tier after tier she
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">{157}</a></span>
-added, gluing each pellet firmly to the last, yet
-leaving open space between each junction. So
-rose a filagree tube of sand, so fragile that a
-touch would crumble it; so strong that it
-would bear four times her weight. Before a
-shadow reached the cliff, it was a half-inch high.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">{158}</a></span>
-But shadows meant an end to the day's work,
-and Spinipes crept
-down below and
-slept.</p>
-
-<p>The morning sun had shone four hours before she stirred. She peered
-out round-eyed from her tower, and, twisting on the rim of it, hung for
-a while head-downwards. A flash of green and crimson light, and
-something settled under her. It was the Jewel Fly again.</p>
-
-<p>"Fine progress, Madam, and a first-rate
-tower. I never saw a better."</p>
-
-<p>No word said Spinipes, but straightway
-launched, and flew at her.</p>
-
-<p>"Out, cuckoo-sneak!" she screamed. "Out!
-or I sting!"</p>
-
-<p>The Jewel Fly dodged like a gnat, and
-vanished round the corner.</p>
-
-<p>She certainly meant mischief.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">{159}</a></span>
-The lowest chamber of the shaft now held a
-precious thing&mdash;a spindle-shaped gold egg,
-slung to the side-wall by a silken thread.
-Back darted Spinipes to look at it; and test the
-fine-spun sling again; and fuss with it; and feel
-that it was hers.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 125px;">
-  <img src="images/159.jpg" width="125" height="315" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The lowest chamber of the shaft now held
-    a precious thing</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Then up to her look-out once more. This
-time she dropped down to
-the sand and sunned herself
-contentedly.</p>
-
-<p>The Bees had long been
-working. Forward and back
-they passed unceasingly,
-now and again one towered,
-now and again one settled; but
-never did their labour-song, a
-droning, buzzing, humming
-chanty, weaken  or gather
-strength. The Jewel Fly had
-vanished altogether, yet
-Spinipes still seemed to fear her coming. A
-full half hour she stayed on guard, and spent
-the time in adding to her tower, and rounding
-off its entrance, which, of its own weight, took
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">{160}</a></span>
-a gentle down-curve. Then, after one last gaze
-upon her egg, she flew afield.</p>
-
-<p>"Good hunting, sister!" said the Ophion Fly.
-She sat on the same leaf as yesterday.</p>
-
-<p>"I want them now," said Spinipes.</p>
-
-<p>"The're thousands of them,
-thousands," said the fly, "and most
-of them quite fat."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 125px;">
-  <img src="images/160.jpg" width="125" height="175" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">It was a flabby, green, black-headed
-    Grub</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>But Spinipes was too engrossed
-to hear her. Already, swayed by instinct she
-was hunting, hunting an unknown quarry in
-the lucerne. From plant to plant, from leaf to
-leaf, she fluttered. Now she dropped down to
-earth, and ran this way and that in the green
-twilight tangle. Now she sped nimble-footed
-up a stalk. Now she took flight and skimmed
-above the leaves.</p>
-
-<p>At last she paused, her every muscle trembling,
-and stared at what confronted her.</p>
-
-<p>It was a flabby, green, black-headed grub,
-fixed slug-like on its food-plant. A trail of
-skeleton tracery marked where its jaws had
-passed, and, as it reached the border of its leaf
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">{161}</a></span>
-it swung its head, and starting near midrib,
-gnawed yet another ribbon-strip of green.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center">
-  <img src="images/161.jpg" width="125" height="125" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>It ceased to feed as Spinipes appeared, and
-rested motionless, until her weight made its leaf-platform
-shiver. Then it dropped silently to
-earth. But Spinipes reached earth almost as
-fast, and, quartering every inch of ground, found
-it and gripped it tightly. It struggled feebly
-as she pinned it down, and, as she stung it,
-shuddered. The sting was measured to the
-millionth part. It robbed the grub of sentient
-life, yet left it living. So Nature had enjoined.
-For every infant Spinipes, a score of live green
-grubs. Robbed of full life, lest struggling they
-should harm the egg; forbidden death, lest dying
-they should taint the shaft;
-lulled to long sleep in mercy.
-Of Nature's ordinance the
-grub knew nothing&mdash;and
-Spinipes knew nothing. Her
-task was to make store of
-food against the time when
-her gold egg should hatch. Instinctively she
-knew the grub was food: instinctively she
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">{162}</a></span>
-paralysed its being: instinctively she laboured
-to transport it.</p>
-
-<p>Her jaws were fastened tight behind its head.
-Slowly she dragged it up a stalk until blue sky
-alone was over her. Then, loosing her mouth-grip
-of it, and clasping it with all six legs, she
-soared on high; one long unbroken down-glide
-brought her to her tower. An instant's pause
-to shift her grip, and she had pushed the grub
-within the entrance. Keeping a foot-hold on it,
-she eased it gently downwards, until it lay
-beneath her egg. She turned it over on its
-back and propped it to the side wall, caressed
-her egg, and mounted to the light again.</p>
-
-<p>Back to the lucerne field she flew, and, in ten
-minutes, reappeared, a second grub beneath her.</p>
-
-<p>This, too, she propped up carefully, and so
-she worked throughout the day, hunting, benumbing,
-storing. Twelve grubs in all she
-brought. All twelve she packed into a single
-pile. A few made feeble movements, and these,
-for prudence' sake, she stung afresh.</p>
-
-<p>She passed the night contentedly, for it had
-been good hunting.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 381px;">
-  <img src="images/162a.jpg" width="381" height="440" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">An instant's pause to shift her grip, and
-    she had pushed the grub within the entrance.</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 381px;">
-  <img src="images/162b.jpg" width="381" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">"Take that&mdash;and that&mdash;and that," said
-    Spinipes, and drove her sharp sting home.</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">{163}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/163.jpg" width="200" height="264" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Twelve Grubs in all she brought</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The morrow's sky was wind-swept. Across it scurried wisps of grey
-with torn and fretted edges. These raced to catch each other, and fused
-in rounded velvet clouds. Mass joined to mass, and, surging slowly
-upwards, veiled the sun. Southwards, where earth met sky, a fine-drawn
-streak of blue endured, while, here and there, a rent across the veil
-gave passage to a radiant fan-spread beam. Once only did such radiance
-reach the cliff. It brought a treacherous message. Out swarmed the bees
-to snatch the chance of work, and out, with like intent, came Spinipes.
-Straight to her hunting-ground she flew, but, even as she reached it,
-came the rain.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">{164}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/164.jpg" width="125" height="86" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>For two hours she was weather-bound. At
-last a watery gleam of light,
-mirrored in every dripping
-leaf, enticed her from
-her shelter. Homeward
-she sped, and, reaching
-home, found havoc. Her tower was gone&mdash;the
-rain had razed it utterly&mdash;but there was
-worse mishap than this. Swift-scurrying on
-the surface of the sand were gangs of ants,
-and every gang was busy with a grub, one
-of <i>her</i> grubs. They pulled and pushed and
-shouted to each other, and worked their
-burdens upward to the cleft which marked
-their city's entrance. She poised aghast, as
-with a mocking spit at her, the gaping shaft
-disgorged another grub. Six sturdy ants came
-with it, and, ranging up in order, (a pair to tug,
-a pair to push, a pair to guide,) commenced their
-long ascent.</p>
-
-<p>The grubs might be replaced in time&mdash;what
-of her precious egg? Downwards she tumbled
-headlong. Three grubs, the lowest of the pile,
-were left; her egg&mdash; She had been in the nick
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">{165}</a></span>
-of time. Her egg was there, nay more, it was
-uninjured. Her mother instinct told her this
-as, with quick trembling passes, she felt the
-hang and weight of it. Her mother instinct
-swung her round, as down the shaft she heard a
-scraping footfall. Even as she turned, an ant's
-black face peered round the lower bend.</p>
-
-<p>"Out thief!" she cried. "Assassin! Bandit!
-Robber!"</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/165.jpg" width="125" height="90" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>The ant retreated hurriedly, but all that night
-she sat at the shaft's mouth, and barred the way
-below with her own body.</p>
-
-<p>Next day the weather mended&mdash;a blaze of
-sun from an unclouded sky, and, on the sand-cliff,
-ecstasy of life.</p>
-
-<p>Hard work in store for Spinipes! Three
-hours she spent in raising a fresh tower, five
-hours in reprovisioning her burrow. But she
-no longer worked alone. For others of her
-race had found the cliff, and
-other towers, twin to her
-own, were rising from
-the sand-ledge. Between
-them pygmy digger
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">{166}</a></span>
-wasps dug shafts to match their bodies, and
-trident-tailed ichneumons sailed about them,
-and sneaking, prying,
-jewel flies, here, there,
-and everywhere on
-mischief bent.</p>
-
-<p>She <i>caught</i> her old acquaintance,
-caught her in
-the act, and dragged her out, and stung her as
-was promised.</p>
-
-<p>"I looked inside, that's all&mdash;that's really all,"
-whimpered the culprit as she clutched the
-rim.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/166.jpg" width="125" height="109" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">{167}</a></span>
-"Take that&mdash;and that&mdash;and that," said
-Spinipes, and drove her sharp sting home.
-But jewel flies are toughened folk, and this one,
-flung aside at last, was in full flight, and merry
-as a grig, within a minute of her punishment.</p>
-
-<p>Daily the work grew harder. It took more
-time to find the grubs, since other wasps were
-hunting, and soon the increasing bulk of them
-taxed her full powers of flight. Once, as she
-neared the ledge, she dropped her burden. It
-lay where it had fallen till it died, for neither
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">{168}</a></span>
-she nor other of her kind had wit to forge, or
-mend, a link in instincts broken chain. Once
-she found strange additions to her store. A
-human hand had robbed a neighbouring shaft
-and, with well-meant intention, sought to help
-her. Vain fancy! Here the self-same chain (to
-hunt&mdash;to catch&mdash;to bring&mdash;to store) was, end for
-end, reversed. The alien grubs were, one by
-one, dragged forth, and, one by one, flung headlong.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 308px;">
-  <img src="images/167.jpg" width="308" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">SHE SANK FIVE OTHER CURVING SHAFTS AND BUILT
-    FIVE TOWERS TO GUARD THEM</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Within a week the burrow held full store, a
-stack of five-and-twenty grubs piled up to meet
-the egg. This last was at the hatching-point.
-The silken cord, by which it hung, had
-lengthened with its growth, and each hour
-found it closer to its food. All had gone well,
-and Spinipes' last task, to seal the shaft with a
-partition-wall, was soon accomplished. Nor did
-she ever see that egg again. In time the tower
-itself fell in&mdash;I fancy that she
-helped it, and in its falling,
-smothered the main entrance.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/168.jpg" width="125" height="112" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>She sank five other curving
-shafts&mdash;each held an egg&mdash;and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">{169}</a></span>
-built five towers to guard them. She made
-five further stores of grubs; and then, her
-life-work ended, she crept into a cleft and died.</p>
-
-<p>What of the eggs? you ask. They hatched
-to golden yellow grubs, which fattened on the
-food stores, and when, at length, their food was
-all consumed, they spun them silken coverlets,
-and changed from grubs to sleeping nymphs.
-They slept through autumn's dreariness, through
-winter's cold, through spring's soft showers, and,
-when at length the warmth of summer beckoned,
-they burst their bonds, and, working through the
-sand, flew forth, as those before them had flown
-forth. So recommenced the cycle. An æon
-back it was the same. An æon hence&mdash;who
-knows?</p>
-
-<div class="image-center">
-  <img src="images/169.jpg" width="125" height="154" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">{171}</a></div>
-
- <h2>PICTURES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS<br />
- <small>(JULY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/171.jpg" width="200" height="186" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Magpie Moth</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">I have</span>
-already told you of the beautiful colours to be found on
-butterflies' wings, and how people have actually used a butterfly
-paintbox to make pictures with. Now I am going to show you some
-butterflies and moths (quite common ones all of them) which have queer
-little pictures on their wings ready made&mdash;real pictures I mean,
-faces and animals and things like that.</p>
-
-<p>You may find it, at first, a little hard to see
-them, for they are puzzle pictures, like those
-you get in crackers, but once you have found
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">{172}</a></span>
-the face, or whatever it may be, you won't be
-able to help seeing it.</p>
-
-<p>I will start you with quite an easy one.
-Some of you, I expect, have noticed how often
-living creatures have a pattern on them like an
-open eye. This is called an "eye-marking,"
-and is of course quite a different thing from the
-eye which is used for seeing with. Nearly all
-our butterflies have an eye-marking somewhere
-on their wings, and we find it in many other
-creatures besides butterflies. In birds, for
-instance (you will remember the peacock at
-once), and fish (next time you pass a big fishmonger's
-look out for a John Dory, he has a
-beauty) and lizards and snakes and frogs and
-things like that. It is not often seen on
-animals, though a leopard's or a jaguar's spots
-are something very like it.</p>
-
-<p>If you look at the picture of the Emperor
-Moth you will see that there is a very nicely
-drawn eye on each of his upper wings (his
-real eyes are quite hidden by his little fur
-cape); and if you look at the caterpillar of the
-Elephant hawk-moth long enough, I am sure
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">{173}</a></span>
-you will think that he is looking back at you,
-and that he does not like the look of you
-much.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 469px;">
-  <img src="images/173.jpg" width="469" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Emperor Moth</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Here, again, it is not his eyes that you
-see, but his eye-markings. In the first picture
-they are just where you would expect eyes to
-be, and I must explain to you why. He
-is called the "Elephant" caterpillar because
-the head-end of him ("head-end" sounds
-rather queer; but I think that if one may
-say "tail-end" one may say "head-end")
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">{174}</a></span>
-tapers off very quickly from his fat body,
-and when he swings this end of him, as he often does, it looks like an
-elephant's trunk. You will see what I mean in the second picture.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/174.jpg" width="200" height="285" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Elephant Hawk Moth's Caterpillar
-    showing his Eye-markings</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Now when he is frightened or angry, he tucks his head in like a
-telescope close up to the eye-markings, and then these look as if they
-are really eyes.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/175.jpg" width="200" height="310" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Elephant Hawk-Moth's Caterpillar,
-    showing his Trunk</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Some people think, and they may be quite
-right, that these eye-markings frighten off birds
-and lizards and things like that, who would
-soon eat the caterpillar if they did not think
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">{175}</a></span>
-that his eye-markings were really eyes, and
-that they must have a big body behind them.</p>
-
-<p>You remember the eyes as big as tea-cups
-in "The Little Tin Soldier"? If you have not
-read that, read it as quickly as you can.</p>
-
-<p>Eye-markings are very easy to see, and I
-am sure that you will be able to find four of
-them on the wings of the Peacock Butterfly.</p>
-
-<p>Some people think that these frighten off
-creatures who might eat him, just like those on
-the Elephant Hawk caterpillar, and some people think just the
-opposite&mdash;that the eye-markings are so clear a mark that the
-butterfly's enemies will bite at <i>them</i>, and so get a mouthful of
-butterfly's wing, instead of the butterfly himself; which is, of course,
-all for the good of the butterfly.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">{176}</a></span>
-I don't think we can be quite sure that
-either of these reasons is true, but we may
-be certain that if the eye-markings were not
-somehow useful to the butterfly they would not
-be there.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/176.jpg" width="500" height="429" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Peacock Butterfly</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The upper eye-markings on the Peacock
-have nothing particularly curious about them,
-but those on the under-wings each form a clear
-man's face with a big moustache, whiskers, and
-a bald forehead. If you hold the paper a little
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">{177}</a></span>
-way off, you will see it clearly. It is something
-like Mr. Balfour.</p>
-
-<p>This is a full-face picture, but in the other
-moths, the Mother Shipton and the Magpie,
-you will find side-face pictures. The Mother
-Shipton takes its name from having the face of
-an old witch on each of its upper wings. I will
-leave you to puzzle this out for yourselves, but
-I will give you the hint that the old witch has
-a hooked nose and a pointed chin.</p>
-
-<p>The Magpie Moth has the side face of rather
-an ugly boy with a button of a nose and his
-mouth wide open. This is made up by the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">{178}</a></span>
-markings of each pair of wings taken together,
-and can only be seen when the wings are in a
-certain position. I will give you a hint here,
-too, which will help you. The seventh spot on
-the border of the upper wing, counting downwards,
-is the boy's eye; and he has a fine head
-of hair.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/177.jpg" width="500" height="365" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Mother Shipton Moth</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Nearly all butterflies and moths have some
-kind of picture on their wings, and I think that
-it is nicer looking for these than looking for
-pictures in the fire, because, when once you
-have found a butterfly picture, you may be
-sure of finding it again, and showing it to
-other people.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">{179}</a></div>
-
- <h2>A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE<br />
- <small>(AUGUST)</small></h2>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">I am</span>
-going to talk about two animals this
-time&mdash;one a very big one and one a very
-small one. I am showing you two pictures
-of the small one and two of some cousins of
-his. He is quite the wee-est beastie in this
-country of ours, and nearly the wee-est beastie
-in all the world. He is called the Pygmy
-Shrewmouse, and his name, as you see it
-printed, is just about as long as his soft,
-velvet body.</p>
-
-<p>I wonder how many of you know which is
-the <i>largest</i> of our British animals? If you
-guess quickly you are sure to guess wrong,
-and so I will tell you, and then there will be no
-need to put you right. It is the Blue Whale.</p>
-
-<p>Very few of us have ever seen a Blue Whale,
-or, indeed, have ever had the chance; but he
-comes to our northern coasts almost every
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">{180}</a></span>
-summer, and so, as he is met with in
-British seas, he is quite rightly called a
-British animal.</p>
-
-<p>He does not often swim close inshore, for,
-if he does, he is likely to be caught by the tide,
-and left high and dry like a jelly-fish, which,
-indeed, has more than once happened.</p>
-
-<p>The Blue Whales which come to this
-country are between seventy and eighty feet
-long (there is really no room to give you a
-picture of one) and weigh between a hundred
-and fifty and two hundred tons. The Pygmy
-Shrewmouse, tail and all, is less than three
-inches long and weighs about a tenth of an
-ounce. Now I know that measurements are
-difficult things for young folks to understand,
-so I will try to make you see the difference
-between these two animals of ours in a
-different way. I expect we all know what
-a lawn-tennis court looks like. Two Blue
-Whales would just fill a lawn-tennis court,
-but if we wanted to fill a lawn-tennis court
-with Pygmy Shrewmice, we should want five-hundred
-thousand of them, and if we could
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">{181}</a></span>
-lift a Blue Whale on an enormous pair of
-scales, and tried to balance him with Pygmy
-Shrewmice, we should want&mdash;how many do
-you think? We should want more than
-<i>seventy millions</i> of them.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/181.jpg" width="500" height="454" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Common Shrewmouse, who is Half as
-    Big Again as the Pygmy</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It is wonderful to think that the wee
-Pygmy and the huge Whale should belong
-to the same Class of creatures. But it is so.
-Nearly all the bones in the Pygmy (some are
-scarcely thicker than a hair) can be matched
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">{182}</a></span>
-by the same sort of bones in the Blue Whale.
-If the Blue Whale were a fish (and he
-certainly looks like one) his bones would be
-quite different and quite differently arranged,
-and from this we know that the Whale is not
-a fish like a Shark, but an animal like a Seal,
-or a Pygmy Shrewmouse or one of ourselves.</p>
-
-<p>Now we must look at the pictures. You
-will see at once what a long nose the Pygmy
-has got. This nose is very useful to him, for
-much of his food is tiny insects, and he pokes
-his nose into tiny holes after them.</p>
-
-<p>You can't see his teeth in the pictures,
-which is a pity, for they are very curious
-teeth, and the front ones, instead of pointing
-up and down like ours do, point outwards
-rather, and come together like a pair of
-tweezers. This helps him to catch insects
-too, and to pull little snails out of their
-shells.</p>
-
-<p>I don't think his teeth are strong enough
-to crack snail shells, but his dark-brown
-cousin, the Common Shrewmouse (his picture
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">{183}</a></span>
-is on page 181), cracks snail shells quite
-easily, and so does his black cousin, the
-Water Shrewmouse.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/183.jpg" width="500" height="401" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Water Shrewmouse, who is nearly Half
-    as Big Again as the Common Shrewmouse</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>What does the great Blue Whale eat, you
-ask? I expect you will be surprised to hear
-that he eats much the same kind of things as
-the Pygmy&mdash;small slug-like creatures, scarcely
-an inch long, which swarm in parts of the sea.
-Of course he eats barrelfuls at once.</p>
-
-<p>He catches them by a wonderful arrangement
-in his mouth, which is made of what
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">{184}</a></span>
-we call whalebone. It is something like the
-gratings across drain-pipes, which let the
-water through but stop everything else, and
-he can lift it up or drop it down as he pleases.
-When he is hungry, he takes a huge mouthful
-of sea-water and lets it out again through this
-whalebone grating. All the small slug-like
-things which are swimming in the water are
-trapped, and, when he has got most of the
-water out of his mouth, he swallows them.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 350px;">
-  <img src="images/184.jpg" width="350" height="366" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Pygmy Shrewmouse</span><br />His fur has a
-    beautiful purple bloom, like that on a yellow plum; and is
-    so fine that it often shows mother-of-pearl colours</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>I don't think that the Whale can have much
-trouble about getting his dinner; all he has
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">{185}</a></span>
-to do is to find the right piece of sea and then
-open his mouth; but the Pygmy, I think, has
-to work very hard, as he has to catch everything
-separately, and he is such a delicate little
-creature that he is seldom about unless the
-weather is warm and fine.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 350px;">
-  <img src="images/185.jpg" width="350" height="293" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">This is how the Pygmy coils Himself up
-    to sleep</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Then he has to make up for the hungry time
-when bad weather has kept him in his hole.</p>
-
-<p>In the autumn one often finds dead shrewmice
-lying on the paths. Nobody quite
-knows why they die in the autumn, but I
-think it is because only a few of them, if any,
-are strong enough to stand cold and wet and
-hunger all at once. The rest die just like the
-leaves die.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">{186}</a></span>
-You must not think a dead Shrewmouse is
-like a live one to look at, for he is quite
-different. When dead, the poor little beastie
-lies stretched out straight, but when he is
-alive he is all bunched up together and runs
-about like a little fur ball on legs.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">{187}</a></div>
-
- <h2>IN WEASEL WOOD<br />
- <small>(LAMMAS DAY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/187.jpg" width="125" height="147" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">Again</span>
-the Fox Cub was puzzled. His muzzle wrinkled dubiously, his ears
-twitched and puckered, he barked (a new accomplishment), he mewed (a
-newer habit still), and then, since sound proved futile, he sank from
-his hindquarters forward slowly, grounded his nose between his paws and
-stared.</p>
-
-<p>This was the queerest happening of all.
-Queerer than the briar's queer flutter; and the
-shower of pink petals from it; and the glint of
-savage little eyes half-way up it; and the savage
-little chestnut face behind them. Queerer than
-the scream from the sky; and the rotten elm-branch
-dancing bough to bough; and cannoning
-against the trunk; and shattering at his
-feet. Queerer than the swish through the nettlebed&mdash;swish
-of a purple snaking shadow, which
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">{188}</a></span>
-might have been mere bird, had the trail of it
-been clumsier, or its ripple more fretful.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/188.jpg" width="500" height="410" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Again the Fox Cub was Puzzled</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Birds he had known since teething. Mother
-had brought them often; Father less often&mdash;scraggy,
-thin-necked, towsled things, yet mostly
-of fine flavour; finer than rabbits certainly
-(except quite baby rabbits); finer, too, than
-frogs; or lizards; or mice; or snails; or any of
-the myriad crawl-by-nights on which young
-teeth gain confidence.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">{189}</a></span>
-The Fox Cub stared round-eyed towards the
-bracken. It certainly was moving&mdash;moving in
-waves which spent themselves abruptly, moving
-in spins and eddies. Now and again great
-swathes of it sank downward.</p>
-
-<p>The Fox Cub froze to stone. His muzzle
-hardened; his ears drooped flat; only his tail
-(his brush was yet to come) twitched half in
-interest, half in apprehension.</p>
-
-<p>The bracken started midway down the slope,
-in straggling, wayward patches. These quickly
-joined in an unbroken mass, and, on the level
-ground, gained full luxuriance. A cart-track
-twisted through them, half of it clear to eyes
-above, half intercepted.</p>
-
-<p>Beyond, the ground crept up once more&mdash;bracken
-gave place to bramble, bramble to
-coppice, coppice to the sky.</p>
-
-<p>The Fox Cub's eyes missed nothing.</p>
-
-<p>Movement above he saw&mdash;the brown owl
-changing station. Movement upon mid-slope&mdash;the
-dormouse in the brambles. Movement
-upon the cart-track&mdash;the shrewmouse worrying
-snails. But these were mere diversions&mdash;their
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">{190}</a></span>
-interest passed. The bracken furnished a besetting
-problem&mdash;movement inexplicable, sound
-inexplicable&mdash;long-drawn, wheezy breathings,
-snorts of exertion, sighs of content. There was
-scent also, heavy musted scent, which came in
-whiffs and dangled at his nose.</p>
-
-<p>But for this scent he must have smelt the
-Stoat. The Stoat came dancing up the wind,
-passed by to right of him, and swung about.
-He held himself with an air, his body arched,
-one broad white pad uplifted, his tail curved
-decorously. From where he lay, the Fox
-Cub took his measure, then slowly reared
-himself and yawned. He, too, had teeth to
-show.</p>
-
-<p>The Stoat's black tail twitched side to side.
-He met the challenge squarely. The Fox Cub
-sank full length again. The Stoat tiptoed
-towards him, and, stretching full-neck forward,
-nibbled at his fur. So was their peace established.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">{191}</a></span></p>
-
-<p>"Badger," whispered the Stoat, and danced
-from point to point excitedly, "Badger, grub-grub-grubbing."</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/191.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">HE SANK FROM HIS HINDQUARTERS FORWARD
-    SLOWLY, GROUNDED HIS NOSE BETWEEN HIS PAWS AND STARED</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">{192}</a></span>
-A stunted patch of bracken burst apart, and
-from its cover lurched a broad grey back.</p>
-
-<p>"He scents you," said the Stoat.</p>
-
-<p>The Fox Cub still lay motionless. It was
-the broadest back he yet had seen.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/192.jpg" width="125" height="177" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Should one run?" he whispered. This
-spelt sheer ignorance of the woods.</p>
-
-<p>"Run?" said the Stoat. "Whoever ran from
-Badger but a rabbit? Badger is all benevolence.
-Badger is King. We run towards him."</p>
-
-<p>"Who are <i>We</i>?" said the Fox Cub.</p>
-
-<p>"<i>We?</i>" said the Stoat. "Why, Marten,
-Polecat, Stoat, and Weasel. Flesh-eaters All.
-All of one Brotherhood. Beasties Courageous.
-Squirrel is living up to us&mdash;he does his best
-with eggs."</p>
-
-<p>"<i>Squirrel is living up to us?</i>" It was a
-cough and splutter from above
-and Stoat and Cub peered
-upwards. Squirrel sat twenty
-feet away, and stamped with indignation.
-"Squirrel is living
-up to us? My plumed tail!
-you wait till Squirrel grows."</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/193.jpg" width="500" height="416" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Stoat tiptoed towards Him</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">{193}</a></span>
-"Never mind him," said the Stoat, "he's
-silly."</p>
-
-<p>The broad grey back had swung about, and
-Badger's head was lifted. Slowly it swayed
-from side to side, slowly it nodded.</p>
-
-<p>"Where are his eyes?" whispered the Fox
-Cub.</p>
-
-<p>"In his head," chuckled the Stoat.</p>
-
-<p>"His head's a puzzle," said the Fox Cub&mdash;which,
-indeed, it was. Seen from above, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">{194}</a></span>
-swinging to and fro, its clean-cut
-symmetries of black and white
-foreshortened in confusion.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/194.jpg" width="125" height="152" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Wait till he fronts you," said the
-Stoat, and presently this happened.
-The head stopped motionless. A
-broad white stripe divided it; on either side were
-triangles of black; beneath was white again,
-and white tricked out the outline of each ear.</p>
-
-<p>"He's black beneath," said the Stoat, "and
-grey behind&mdash;now you can see him."</p>
-
-<p>Badger had backed a pace or two and craned
-his neck to snuffle. Ebon-chested he was and
-ebon-footed.</p>
-
-<p>"Still I can't see his eyes," muttered the Fox
-Cub, but, even as he spoke, he saw them&mdash;steadfast,
-watchful, gimlet eyes, as black as their
-black setting.</p>
-
-<p>"And now we <i>all</i> have seen you," said the
-Stoat. "Marten has seen you; Polecat has seen
-you; Weasel has seen you; I have seen you;
-and Badger has seen you. Fox Cub, you yet
-have much to learn in stealth. Go, make your
-peace with Badger."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">{195}</a></span>
-"What have I done?" said the Fox Cub.</p>
-
-<p>"You've come unasked," said the Stoat.</p>
-
-<p>"I was brought," said the Fox Cub.</p>
-
-<p>"That makes no difference," said the Stoat.
-"The wood belongs to US!"</p>
-
-<p>"US! <small>US!</small> us!" the hillside caught the echo
-of it, and filled with sibilant voices.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 488px;">
-  <img src="images/195.jpg" width="488" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"My plumed tail! You wait till Squirrel
-    grows." "Never Mind Him," said the Stoat, "He's Silly"</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">{196}</a></span>
-"US-S-<small>S-S</small>-s-s!" it was the Stoat departing.</p>
-
-<p>"US-S!" screamed the Squirrel, boldly,
-from his branch.</p>
-
-<p>"<i>You?</i>" sneered the Fox Cub. "You
-simian rat! You fuzz-tailed, fish-eyed rabbit!
-Think of your teeth next time you wash your
-face."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/196.jpg" width="125" height="252" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Squirrel stamped and spat at him.
-"Wait till I grow," he spluttered. "Wait till
-my head's as big as yours. Wait till I give
-up nuts."</p>
-
-<p>"Oh, do be quiet," said the Cub. "I want
-to think."</p>
-
-<p>"It might be worth my while," he mused.
-"I <i>like</i> this wood."</p>
-
-<p>Badger was grunting softly to himself. His
-head still swayed and nodded. Now and again
-he scratched the ground before
-him. The Fox Cub rose up
-cautiously, and sat back on his
-haunches. He saw the whole of
-Badger now, the iron-grey back,
-the magpie head, the stumpy tarbrush
-tail.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">{197}</a></span>
-He stole two stealthy paces down the slope,
-but checked as Badger squared himself. Two
-paces more&mdash;and Badger ducked his head, and
-charged full drive uphill at him.</p>
-
-<p>The Fox Cub bolted straightway, turned
-sharp upon the hill-crest, ran half the length of
-it, slid headlong down the sand-cliff (the stones
-rattling about him), followed the ride for fifty
-yards, swung sharply to the right, and so, by
-some strange instinct, reached the gorse-clump.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/197.jpg" width="500" height="259" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Marten has seen You</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>He was quite badly scared. His tongue
-lolled dripping from his mouth; his sides heaved
-painfully; he felt that, come what may, he must
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">{198}</a></span>
-lie down. So he squirmed,
-eel-like, underneath the furze,
-twisted himself about, and, with
-his head thrust outwards, snuffed
-and listened. He had outdistanced Badger&mdash;of
-that he soon assured himself. Yet there was
-something watching him, something whose
-curious stare he felt. His eyes ranged anxiously
-from point to point, dwelt on each tuft and
-hummock in the grass, dwelt long upon a
-jerking patch of moss, which in due course revealed
-a white-legged mouse, and in the end
-cast upwards.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/198.jpg" width="125" height="107" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>Above him stretched a leafless branch of elm,
-and on its clean-cut, fretted edge a moving blur
-intruded&mdash;a blur which swelled and shrunk in
-steady rhythm, and twitched and wriggled forward
-in short jerks, so closely welded to the
-bark, so neatly matched in hue to it, that, but
-for movement, it had cheated sight.</p>
-
-<p>The Fox Cub watched it furtively, his yellow
-eyes upturned. It checked, and from the
-end of it dropped a soft feathery plume, and
-hung and dangled lightly. Its lines were unmistakable,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">{199}</a></span>
-it was a tail. Then, as the Fox
-Cub gazed, the head took shape&mdash;a flat-browed,
-taper-muzzled head, with shimmery velvet eyes,
-which seemed to look beyond as well as at him.</p>
-
-<p>Such was the Marten couched. Their eyes
-met, and he saw her rampant. She leapt from
-where she lay to where, six feet above, the
-branch forked double. Astride on this, her forefeet
-on the upper arm, her hind-feet on the
-lower, she faced about and screamed&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Ai-<i>yah</i>-ai-ee! Ai-<i>yah</i>-ai-ee! A Fox! A
-Fox!"</p>
-
-<p>The scream dropped to a whine, then to a
-bleat&mdash;"<i>Huh-huh-huh-huh! Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh!</i>"&mdash;then
-swelled into a scream
-again.</p>
-
-<p>Out leapt the Fox Cub, impudent, and faced
-the music.</p>
-
-<p>"The last part again, Marten," he cried.
-"Oh, <i>please</i>, the last part again!"</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/199.jpg" width="125" height="207" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Marten stared, mouth open
-"A cub!" she gasped; "not even
-a grown fox&mdash;a woolly, blunt-nosed
-cub."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">{200}</a></span>
-"Do you know where you are?" she added,
-shortly.</p>
-
-<p>"Yes, I do," said the Fox Cub. "The wood
-belongs to US. Marten and Polecat, Stoat
-and Weasel. Flesh-eaters All. All of one
-Brotherhood. Beasties Courageous. I hope
-I've got that right&mdash;and you all kow-tow to
-Badger."</p>
-
-<p>"And where do <i>you</i> come in?" said the
-Marten grimly. His coolness took her fancy.</p>
-
-<p>"The first good roomy hole I find," said the
-Fox Cub. "I like this wood and in this wood
-I'll stop."</p>
-
-<p>"<i>Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh</i>," said the
-Marten.</p>
-
-<p>"Quite so," said the Fox Cub.</p>
-
-<p>The Marten snuggled down, her eyes a-twinkle.</p>
-
-<p>"I know exactly the kind of hole you'd like,"
-she said.</p>
-
-<p>"Where's that?" said the Fox Cub.</p>
-
-<p>"Listen to me carefully," said the Marten,
-"and you can't miss it. You know where the
-holm oak is&mdash;of course you don't. Look here.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">{201}</a></span>
-Get back on to the ride and follow that. It
-leads you to a hollow."</p>
-
-<p>"It leads two ways," said the Fox Cub.</p>
-
-<p>"You go downhill to the hollow," said the Marten,
-gently. "Right at the bottom you will find
-an oak-stump, and if you look inside it (which I
-don't advise), you will find a family of Polecats."</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/201.jpg" width="500" height="372" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">And perhaps you will be good enough to
- get higher up the Tree, while I come underneath</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Polecats?" said the Fox Cub.</p>
-
-<p>"Yes, Polecats," said the Marten.</p>
-
-<p>"Turn up to the left at the stump, and make
-for the silver birch at the top of the rise. The
-hole is close by that."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">{202}</a></span>
-"Much obliged," said the Fox Cub, "and
-perhaps you will be good enough to get higher
-up the tree, while I come underneath."</p>
-
-<p>"Certainly," said the Marten. From twig
-to twig she sprang, so daintily, so airily, that
-a mere flutter signalled her ascent.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/202.jpg" width="125" height="171" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Will this do?" cried she from the topmost
-branch. Her forefeet hung on its extremity;
-her hind-feet curved and dangled; her tail
-twitched underneath her.</p>
-
-<p>"That will do," said the Fox Cub. Before
-the words were spoken he was past the tree;
-before the Marten reached the ground he gained
-his stride, which was good going. The Marten
-checked at twenty yards. "I've done my
-share," she said, and sauntered up the tree
-again.</p>
-
-<p>The Fox Cub quickly hit the ride, noted
-its slope, and keeping close in touch with
-it, slunk velvet-footed through the abutting
-cover. His pads dropped soft as
-thistle-down, he scarcely stirred a
-leaf, and yet the weasel, nosing in
-the brambles, got wind of him and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">{203}</a></span>
-squeaked. She was a five-inch weasel, too
-small to check his progress, yet large enough
-for mischief. Should she be silenced? He
-swung about&mdash;the scent of her
-still lingered&mdash;and in a moment
-he was on her trail. Three
-bounds and he had sighted her.
-She shot beneath a bramble-patch,
-issued where he had
-least foreseen, and tricked him in a maze of
-straggling roots. He worked back, sulky-faced,
-towards the ride, but checked ten paces
-from the oak-stump. Its tenant sat upon
-it&mdash;the purple, snaking, whiplash thing which
-had perplexed him earlier. Now he saw
-head to tail of it. The white-rimmed ears,
-the ochre-banded forehead, the bold eyes,
-spectacled with brown, the coarse brown-purple
-body-fur flecked here and there with
-streaks of shimmery buff&mdash;all these he took
-quiet note of, and presently saw many aspects
-of them.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/203.jpg" width="125" height="125" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Marten had been right. The Polecat's
-mate came sneaking from the hollow, and close
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">{204}</a></span>
-behind her squirmed four red-brown cubs, loose-jointed
-yet, but muscular, whimpering pettishly,
-mauling each other as they ran.</p>
-
-<p>Six Polecats knit by kinship! it was too
-much for one Fox Cub to face. He cast wide
-off to right of them, and, creeping quietly round
-again, regained the ride to leeward. Here it
-cut through rough coppice. The western slope
-was thickly wooded, low bushes mostly, chestnut,
-birch, and hazel, yet high enough to screen
-what lay beyond. He started to explore the
-upper ground. At first the incline was easy,
-but half way up it steepened to a cliff. Coppice
-gave place to grass and briar, and these in turn
-to gorse and slithery sand. By slow degrees
-he zigzagged to the summit, faced round, and
-scanned the depths which he had left. The
-oak stump stood out clear against the ride,
-and, on his right, two hundred yards away,
-he marked the silver birch. He scrambled
-down to grass again, and, travelling quickly
-on mid-slope, found what he sought within
-two minutes.</p>
-
-<p>Viewed from below&mdash;it opened near the skyline&mdash;the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">{205}</a></span>
-hole seemed promising enough. It
-was a spacious sheltered hole, almost a cavern&mdash;the
-depths of it ink-black, the entrance to it
-jagged and arching. The Fox Cub stole up
-cautiously and stopped dead on its threshold.
-Something was in possession, something which
-split the darkened void in three; something
-which crept out slowly from the black, first
-shadowy grey, then white&mdash;a clean-cut <i>fleur-de-lys</i>
-of white.</p>
-
-<p>It was another Badger.</p>
-
-<p>The Fox Cub leapt back sideways, but
-even so she caught him. She came out
-(thirty pounds of her) full charge, and caught
-him low. The attacking badger tosses like
-a bull, trusting to weight and side-swing of
-the shoulders. He somersaulted twice. The
-Badger held straight on her course and disappeared
-downhill.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/205.jpg" width="125" height="96" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Fox Cub slowly pulled himself together.
-Had he been bitten? Bruised he was all over,
-and sick, and giddy; and so,
-the hole being there, he crept
-within it, and crawled down
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">{206}</a></span>
-the main shaft for fifteen yards, and took one of
-four turnings, and followed this until it forked,
-and then chose the right gallery, and so attained
-the nest. Rather the haystack, for the making
-of it had almost stripped an acre. Bracken
-there was, and bent-grass, thyme and clover,
-arum stalk and bluebell, thick swathes of them
-inextricably tangled, bedding enough for twenty
-half-grown cubs.</p>
-
-<p>There was food also. He found a rabbit's leg
-at once, then a stiff mummied frog, then half
-a snake. He made a closer search, and found
-more rabbit. Each find he sampled. Most of
-them he gulped, but some he buried carefully
-for seasoning, scraping small hollows to receive
-them, and plastering earth upon them with his
-nose. This done, he coiled himself up tight,
-and for five minutes dozed with wakeful ears.
-Thirst brought him to his feet again; thirst and
-a sense of danger. Clearly this was the Badger's
-hole&mdash;he owed that Marten something. The
-hole had a main entrance. From this a single
-shaft led fifteen yards, but then it split, and
-smaller tunnels joined it, tunnels which might
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">{207}</a></span>
-end blind. Badgers no doubt were most benevolent,
-but Badgers seem to charge at sight,
-and tunnels were poor places to be charged in.
-The last reflection scared him back to sense. He
-would be cornered hopelessly, would not know
-which of twenty turns to take. That settled
-it. To wait for them was madness. He
-must go.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/207.jpg" width="500" height="454" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">It was another Badger</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>He reached the entrance without accident, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">{208}</a></span>
-dropped soft-footed down the slope. A puddle
-on the ride was in his mind&mdash;a puddle just
-beyond the Polecat's stump. He reached this
-safely also, stooped down his head, and lapped
-his fill.</p>
-
-<p>The wood was oddly silent. Dark clouds had
-massed low in the sky and streamed to either
-side, outflanking it. Beneath their dreary shadow
-the green and russet of the trees faded to lifeless
-grey. The grass-blades stood up stiffly; the
-leaves hung stiffly downwards. All that was
-weatherwise was taking cover. Down from the
-summit of the ride came the two Badgers,
-bumping. They travelled leisurely.</p>
-
-<p>First He would root an arum up (a flick with
-one fore-paw), and She would place her paw where
-his had been. Then He would stretch tiptoe
-against an oak, and She would do the same.
-Then He would wheel sharp right or left, and
-She would follow like a truck.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">{209}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 387px;">
-  <img src="images/209.jpg" width="387" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">SHE CAME OUT FULL CHARGE</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Cub had time to entrench himself securely.
-He chose the summit of the Polecat's stump, and
-from it watched the pair of them bump past.
-They quickened as they faced the rise, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">{210}</a></span>
-grunted to each other; then, with their heads
-down, sped in line uphill.</p>
-
-<p>And with their going came the rain.</p>
-
-<p>It spattered in large warning drops, then
-swished in sheets. Even before the thunder-peals,
-and rattle of fierce hail, the stump became
-untenable. The Fox Cub scrambled down
-from it, headed a dozen different ways, and, in
-the end, grown desperate, pursued the retreating
-Badgers. He caught them as they reached the
-hole, and saw them topple down it. He gave
-them half a minute's grace and toppled after.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/210.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">And in due course of Time, His Wife</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">{211}</a></span>
-What happened next? That I can only guess
-at. Perhaps there was a Fox Cub course for
-dinner; perhaps (and this, I think, is likeliest)
-the Badgers took small notice of his entry. They
-may have even welcomed him, and, in due course
-of time, his wife.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">{213}</a></div>
-
- <h2>SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING<br />
- <small>AND WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING<br />
- (SEPTEMBER)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 124px;">
-  <img src="images/213.jpg" width="124" height="163" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Lobster Moth<br />
-    Caterpillar</span><br />
-    Pretending to be a Spider</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">The</span>
-wolves and sheep I am going to talk about are all of them insects,
-or rather all of them but one, for scientific people do not allow us to
-call spiders insects. Insects have six legs and six legs only, while
-spiders and mites and those sort of people
-have eight, and there are a great many other
-differences between spiders and true insects
-which would make it quite a dreadful blunder
-to put them in the same case in the Museum,
-or to speak of them in the same breath when
-you know you are talking to clever people.</p>
-
-<p>The Spider, as you might guess, is one of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">{214}</a></span>
-the Wolves, and so is the Dragon in the
-Water-weed, who turns into one of our largest
-dragon flies, if he is lucky; while the caterpillars
-and the Giant Wood Wasp are just
-silly harmless sheep.</p>
-
-<p>Have you ever thought of the wonderful
-struggles which are always going on in the
-insect world&mdash;the struggles to eat, and the
-struggles not to be eaten? Nearly all insects
-seem to be the food for something or other.
-Most animals enjoy them thoroughly, so do
-many birds, and many reptiles and amphibians
-(frogs and toads) and many fish. I
-think that spiders live on them entirely, and
-they have also cannibals to fear among their
-own kind, for though most insects feed on
-plant-juice, quite a large number of them
-turn to stronger meat, and spend their lives
-in hunting their poor relations. It sounds
-rather horrible, doesn't it? But we may be
-quite sure that everything of the kind has
-been mercifully arranged so that this beautiful
-world of ours, with all its joy and colour,
-and its millions and millions of happy children&mdash;I
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">{215}</a></span>
-do not think that any lives but those
-of human beings are ever really unhappy&mdash;may
-keep its beauty always. That is why
-the ichneumon flies have to kill down the
-caterpillars, for, if there were too many caterpillars,
-there would be no hedgerows, let
-alone vegetables for dinner; and the Rove
-Beetles, who have curly cock-up tails, have
-to kill down the little boring beetles, for, if
-there were too many little boring beetles
-there would be no trees; and the Crabros have
-to kill down the blue-bottles, for if there were
-too many blue-bottles&mdash;well, goodness knows
-what <i>would</i> happen to some excitable people.</p>
-
-<p>We must believe then that things are best
-as they are&mdash;that a struggle for life is part of
-a Great Plan, Greater than our human minds
-can grasp, and that the lives of the hunters
-are as useful in their way as the lives of the
-hunted.</p>
-
-<p>Now how would we ourselves act, if our
-lives depended on catching things? And how
-would we act if our lives depended on not
-being caught? I don't think we could add
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">{216}</a></span>
-much to what the insects and spiders have
-taught us. To hunt successfully you must
-get so near to your quarry that you can kill
-it. If you are quicker-footed, well and good.
-If you are slower-footed you may employ
-something quicker-footed than yourself&mdash;this
-is what happens in fox-hunting; or you may
-approach without being seen&mdash;this is what
-happens in deer-stalking: or you may hide
-yourself and wait for your quarry to approach
-you&mdash;this is what happens in tiger-shooting;
-or, lastly, you may employ traps and snares,
-which is how most fishing is done. I don't
-think that any creatures but ourselves employ
-lower creatures to hunt for them, but the
-other ways are used by all sorts of animals,
-and the last two are used more skilfully by
-insects and spiders than by anything else.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">{217}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 334px;">
-  <img src="images/217.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">THE SPIDER ON THE BRAMBLE BLOSSOM</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Look at the pictures of the spider on the
-bramble-blossom. This particular spider
-belongs to a family called <i>Thomisus</i> (I don't
-know why) and he varies in colour from a
-bright sulphur yellow to a delicate green,
-which is an exact match to the green of an
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">{218}</a></span>
-unopened bramble-bud. In three of the pictures
-(a fly has settled close to the spider in
-two of them) you will be able to make out
-the spider pretty soon, I expect, for he has
-stretched his legs out. He keeps quite still
-in this position, and I think he fancies that
-he is a bramble-bud. But in the other picture
-I am pretty sure that, if he did not
-happen to be a rather fat spider, you would
-find it very difficult to distinguish him, and
-you may be certain that a fly would find it
-just as difficult. He is a wolf in sheep's
-clothing, and the sheep are bramble-buds.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/218.jpg" width="500" height="318" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Dragon in the Water-weed</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/219.jpg" width="500" height="381" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Dragon in the Water-weed</span><br />
-    This is the back of him, and you can see that he is covered
-    with a delicate water-weed</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>And now for the Dragon in the Water-weed.
-You will not be able to make him out
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">{219}</a></span>
-at all at first, but if you look long enough you
-will see his body which is too thick to be a piece
-of weed, and if you then let your eyes travel
-upwards, you will see his "mask," which is
-like a pair of folding-doors. These open and
-let his jaws out when he wants to use them.
-And his disguise is even more slim than that
-of the spider, for not only does he mimic the
-Water-weed round him&mdash;his straggly legs,
-which you should be able to make out also,
-help him in this&mdash;but he actually becomes part
-of his surroundings, for all over him grows a
-delicate water-weed, and when he is at the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">{220}</a></span>
-bottom of the pond, where he spends most of
-his time, he is <i>part</i> of the bottom of the
-pond, and the creatures which he would eat
-walk past him carelessly. He is a wolf in
-sheep's clothing, and the sheep are water-weeds.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/220.jpg" width="300" height="309" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Lobster Moth Caterpillar</span><br />
-    As he looks when angry</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>And now for the sheep who are just as clever really as the wolves.
-Two of these are caterpillars&mdash;quite the most curious pair of
-caterpillars to be met with in this country&mdash;and the third is a
-sawfly. Sawflies get their name from having an instrument with which
-they can bore or saw, as the case may be, into leaves or trees, and this
-is the largest one we have in England.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">{221}</a></span>
-The hunter-insects, as we have seen, disguise themselves so as to get
-near their victims unawares, and the hunted disguise themselves very
-often in the same way so as to avoid being seen, but sometimes in such a
-way that if they <i>are</i> seen they may appear to be much more
-terrible creatures than they really are. And so we have the sheep in
-wolves' clothing.</p>
-
-<p>The hunters of the caterpillars are the
-ichneumon flies. Ichneumon flies do not eat
-caterpillars but lay their eggs inside them.
-They have a special instrument for the
-purpose, and when the grubs hatch out they
-gradually eat away the fleshy parts of the
-caterpillar so that it seldom has strength
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">{222}</a></span>
-enough to turn into a chrysalis, let alone a
-butterfly, or moth, or beetle, as the case may
-be. Now what is the chief enemy of a fly?
-Why, of course, a spider. If then something
-which dreads an ichneumon fly can make itself
-look like that fly's worst enemy, a spider, it
-will have a good chance of scoring off the fly.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/221.jpg" width="300" height="435" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Ichneumon Fly</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Caterpillar of the Lobster Moth, of
-which I show you two pictures, can do this
-to a nicety. He has, as you see, an extraordinary
-shape for a caterpillar, I don't think
-that any other caterpillar in this country has
-the same long skinny legs&mdash;and he is able to
-strike extraordinary attitudes which make
-him look very spidery indeed, particularly
-from in front, for then the two little spikes at
-the end of his lobster body appear over the
-top of his head and look like a spider's
-pincers. Mother Nature has been very
-careful of her Lobster Moth caterpillar.
-When he is quite a baby he looks just like
-a little black ant. When he is asleep he
-folds up his legs and looks like a shrivelled
-beech-leaf&mdash;he usually feeds on beech&mdash;and,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">{223}</a></span>
-when he is attacked by an ichneumon fly
-(you can make him think he is being attacked
-by tickling him with a paint-brush) he turns
-himself at once into a sham spider, by throwing
-back his head as far as it will go and
-shuddering his skinny legs in the air.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/223.jpg" width="500" height="457" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Puss Moth Caterpillar</span><br />
-    As he looks when angry</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Puss Moth caterpillar is almost as
-curious. He, too, strikes fearsome attitudes.
-He has eye-markings to help him (you will
-have read about these elsewhere) and he can
-also squirt out an acid from underneath his
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">{224}</a></span>
-chin. These two defences are probably most
-useful against animals and birds and lizards
-and creatures of that kind, but they do not
-seem to be much use against an ichneumon
-fly, and so Mother Nature has helped him
-further, by giving him two little pink whiplashes,
-which shoot out from the prongs at
-his tail end when he is really annoyed.
-When a fly comes near him he brandishes
-them as you see in the picture.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/225.jpg" width="500" height="404" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Giant Wood Wasp</span><br />
-    It has no poisonous sting, though it looks as if it had a
-    very fine one</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Our last sheep is the Giant Wood Wasp,
-who is not a wasp at all, and is much more
-common in this country than he used to be.
-He is a handsome black and yellow insect
-with a body about an inch long, and his
-wolf's clothing is his black and yellow colour.
-This is the commonest wolf's clothing of all.
-You know I expect that a number of stinging
-insects, wasps and bees, have a black and
-yellow, or black and red colouring, and you
-know too, I dare say, that there are a great
-many flies who have no stings but are
-coloured in much the same way. Well, it is
-thought that these flies without stings, of
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">{225}</a></span>
-which the Giant Wood Wasp is one, may
-sometimes avoid attack because they frighten
-their enemies by looking as if they <i>had</i>
-stings. Suppose a young sparrow ate a
-wasp, he would probably get stung, and it
-might happen that next time he saw a black
-and yellow fly, he would mistake it for a
-wasp and so not eat it. If this <i>did</i> happen,
-the fly would have owed his life to being
-black and yellow.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">{227}</a></div>
-
- <h2>THE BEASTIES' BEDTIME<br />
- <small>(OCTOBER)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 125px;">
-  <img src="images/227.jpg" width="125" height="196" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Queen Wasp in her<br />winter sleep</span><br />
-    <small>She puts her wings <i>underneath</i> her body, so that they
-    sha'n't get damaged, and holds on chiefly with her mouth</small></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">How</span>
-would you like to sleep straightaway through the winter, and miss
-Guy Fawkes, and Christmas, and New Year, and Valentine's Day, and
-skating, and snowballing, and round games in the evening, and having
-stories read to you by the fire, and all those delightful
-things which come to cheer us when the weather
-is damp and gloomy, making us feel somehow
-that summer is a queer, impossible kind of
-time, just as in summer we find it hard to
-imagine what it feels like to be really cold? I
-want you to remember in this winter which is
-coming what a number of little creatures in the
-wide world around you are fast, fast asleep. I
-want you to think how wonderful it is that
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">{228}</a></span>
-these little creatures are able to dream away
-the time when there is nothing for them to eat,
-and to wake again when there is food in plenty.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/228.jpg" width="500" height="396" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Bill the Lizard</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Every year when the evenings begin to come
-quicker and quicker, and grow colder and colder,
-Mother Nature, who is the mother of our dear
-own mothers, puts her babies to bed at the
-time which she knows is best. A queer set of
-babies they are! Babies of such different kinds
-that it is a wonder she can keep them all in her
-head, and not have to say sometimes to herself:
-"Good gracious, I forgot my dormouse: and I
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">{229}</a></span>
-don't believe my brown lizard was properly
-tucked up in the grass-tuft; and as for my
-prickly hedge-pig, I don't remember where I
-sent him last."</p>
-
-<p>But Mother Nature never does forget, and
-never spoils her babies. She whispers "bedtime,"
-and they go.</p>
-
-<p>The little insects go first&mdash;the flies, and
-beetles, and earwigs, and frog-hoppers, and
-myriads of other tiny creatures which you can
-see in the grass on any warm day by just lying
-down and opening your eyes.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/229.jpg" width="300" height="239" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Toadums</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>For all Mother Nature's care I fear that most of these die, but some
-may manage to live through the cold, and among the larger kinds of
-insects some always do. You remember
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">{230}</a></span>
-what I told you about the Brimstone Butterfly!
-The Queen Wasp is another of the lucky
-ones.</p>
-
-<p>She creeps into some sheltered crevice,
-where she can find a shred of something small
-enough to take into her mouth. This sounds
-queer, doesn't it? I will tell you the reason.
-The Queen Wasp sleeps hanging by her jaws,
-and hardly trusting to her legs at all. You can
-see what she looks like in the picture, and you
-must notice that she has tucked her wings
-right underneath her body so that nothing can brush against them.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/230f1.jpg" width="500" height="414" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Round Eye the Dormouse</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>After the insects go the reptiles and the frogs. These are
-cold-blooded creatures, so they have no need to make
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">{231}</a></span>
-a nest to keep them warm, but they don't like
-to be too cold, and always creep somewhere
-where the frost will not reach them. Bill the lizard sometimes goes deep
-down into a large grass-tuft, and sometimes creeps into a mouse-hole.
-Froggin dives into a pond and
-wriggles into the mud, or underneath a stone,
-and there sleeps under the water until the hot
-sunshine comes again, and he knows, by the
-feel of things, that it is time to be moving.
-Toadums prefers to sleep on land. He lies
-quite flat, with his hands in front of his eyes,
-and wakes up a little later than Froggin.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/231.jpg" width="300" height="348" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Dormouse in his winter Sleep</span><br />
-    He bunches himself up so as to close all the doors that the
-    air can get in by, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, everything</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>After these the animals. Round Eye the
-dormouse goes to sleep about November.
-He builds a nest of leaves and grass all around
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">{232}</a></span>
-himself, and, if the winter is cold, sleeps straight
-away into April. If the winter is warm, however,
-he may wake up and eat a little food, and
-if he is a wise little mouse, as he usually is, he
-keeps a little store of nuts and seeds at hand in
-case he <i>does</i> wake up. Prickles the hedge-pig
-does much the same. He has a nest which is
-even warmer, for, besides the leaves and grass
-which make the round of it, he rolls his spines
-into anything soft which will stick to them and
-so has a nice warm blanket next to his skin.
-Once he has dropped off to sleep he stays asleep
-till the spring comes. I don't think he ever
-wakes up like the dormouse, or ever makes a
-store of food.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/233.jpg" width="500" height="418" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Prickles the Hedge-Pig</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">{233}</a></span>
-The only other animals which sleep the
-winter through in this country are the bats, and
-some of them sleep even longer than the dormouse
-and the hedge-pig; indeed, they are
-only awake for three or four months in the
-year. Sometimes there are crowds of them
-sleeping together in old caves, and tree trunks,
-and places like that, and it may be that they
-half wake up and talk to each other to pass
-away the time. Indeed, if you know their hole
-and can put your ear close to it, you can sometimes
-hear them talking and squabbling&mdash;faint
-little squabblings like the sound of a kettle
-simmering on the hob when you can just hear
-the tiny bubbles hitting each other and bursting
-with bad temper.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">{234}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/234.jpg" width="500" height="414" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">THE HEDGE-PIG IN HIS WINTER SLEEP<br />
-    He is not so tightly coiled as when he shuts up to defend
-    himself</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>When bats are flying about and hunting
-for moths they often squeak for joy, and then
-their voice is quite different. It is so high
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">{235}</a></span>
-that some people cannot hear it at all; but
-you can make a noise just like it by striking
-two pennies sharply together, and if you can
-hear that being done when you are several
-yards away from the person who is doing it,
-you ought to be able to hear a bat squeak too.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 432px;">
-  <img src="images/235.jpg" width="432" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Lesser Horseshoe Bat in his winter Sleep</span><br />
-    He is hanging head-downwards and is completely shut up in
-    his own wings, which, you see, are beautifully folded</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>You have to watch bats very closely before
-you can tell one kind from another, and I
-expect some of you will be surprised to hear
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">{236}</a></span>
-that there are more different kinds of bats in
-England than there are of any other kinds of
-animals. There are, at least, twelve different
-kinds of English bats, and, as bats now and
-then seem to get blown over the sea from
-France, or be brought in the rigging of ships,
-quite a strange foreign bat may turn up
-sometimes.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">{237}</a></div>
-
- <h2>THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS<br />
- <small>(MICHAELMAS DAY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/237.jpg" width="500" height="409" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Bartimæus</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">Bartimæus</span>
-was simply mole-tired (which
-is as tired as a beastie can be), and he lay
-on his side, with his nose tucked into his waistcoat,
-and dreamed of Nydia, fretfully. Nydia
-was half a field away, dozing in a snug fortress
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">{238}</a></span>
-of her own, with four fat helpless babies to attend
-to, and not a passing thought for Bartimæus.</p>
-
-<p>Five times within twelve hours had Bartimæus
-sought her. Five times had he traversed
-his main-line tunnel, turned eastward at the
-junction by the fence, and, breasting up the
-up-grade full tilt, thrust an inquiring nose at
-Nydia's nest. Why shouldn't he? Why should
-he stand on ceremony with four fat, squirmy,
-wrinkled, hairless infants?</p>
-
-<p>But Nydia had been mightily offended.
-Each time she had boxed his ears. Each time
-she had bitten him. And so he had retreated;
-not for fear, but for black shame&mdash;black shame
-which he had brought upon himself; for Father
-Moles may not approach Mole babies&mdash;that is
-Mole law, and that has been Mole law since
-Moles first dug.</p>
-
-<p>Long journeyings these to Nydia, a hundred
-yards each way at least, but not of length to
-tire him. He had found time and energy for
-in-between excursions. One to the mill-house
-orchard&mdash;there staring hillocks proved it; one
-to the sacred croquet lawn&mdash;he left his marks
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">{239}</a></span>
-here also; one to the mid-field partridge nest,
-which meant one egg the less.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/239.jpg" width="500" height="449" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">He headed straight for Water</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>A cheerful strenuous day's work; on which,
-but for the finish of it, he might have slept at
-ease.</p>
-
-<p>Nydia's last bite and buffet had been real.</p>
-
-<p>She swept her right hand cross-ways, baring
-her teeth in line with it, and screwing round her
-shoulders for the swing. Then she lunged
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">{240}</a></span>
-backwards viciously. This meant a dragging
-wound which hurt, and Bartimæus had bitten
-too, and, as ill-luck would have it, bitten a
-baby. Nydia flung at him squealing, and,
-when a Mother Mole flings at you squealing,
-one prudent course and only one is open.</p>
-
-<p>His nose was bleeding as he started home,
-and he was hot and thirsty. He headed
-straight for water. A ten-yard down-slant
-brought him to the brook. He drank his fill,
-then, tempted by the coolness, set off swimming.
-He swam as deftly as a water-shrew, high out
-of water, with his stumpy tail cocked upward in
-his wake.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">{241}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 334px;">
-  <img src="images/241.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">THE BANK ROSE STEEPLY OVER HIM</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>He reached the farther side without mishap,
-rustled the moisture off his fur, then started
-climbing. The bank rose steeply over him,
-but here and there a naked root gave hand-hold,
-and, shoulder-hoisted over these, he scrambled
-to the level. On this he travelled easily, using
-his paddle-hands as sweeps, and scuttling with
-his feet. From the brookside half-way across
-the field, and almost to the dried-up middle-ditch,
-bent grass-stems marked his trail. He
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">{242}</a></span>
-checked close by the alder-stump, nosed at the
-ground, and started digging.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps he scented supper.</p>
-
-<p>The alder-stump is populous still. Its core,
-now sapless, lifeless touchwood, is riddled
-through and through. Here moths-to-be, and
-flies-to-be, and beetles-to-be have spent their
-youth and fattened. Virtue still lingers in the
-roots, and, hidden by the forks and bends of
-them, quiet lives consume, or bide their time.
-Now and again a human hand "collects" them,
-now and again a mole, the skilfullest pupa
-hunter in the world.</p>
-
-<p>Yet Bartimæus was not really hungry&mdash;he
-dug more from ill-humour, wrenching the grass-tufts
-sideways with his teeth, and slashing
-fiercely with his hands, until he forced an
-entrance for his shoulders.</p>
-
-<p>Then his whole action changed.</p>
-
-<p>He stabbed his nose into the soil, and, twisting
-from the shoulders, screwed it home. Then
-he drew back his head, turned over sideways,
-and, with one shoulder and one hand thrust
-out, gained purchase where his nose had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">{243}</a></span>
-been, and scratched at the soft earth. As one
-side tired he turned about, and thrust its
-fellow forward. Sometimes
-he lay upon his back,
-and heaved and squirmed
-and shuffled. Sometimes he
-screwed his way, his whole
-frame twisted spirally, half
-prostrate, half supine.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/243.jpg" width="125" height="175" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>He drove a six-inch
-downward slant, then, for one yard, a level
-course, then upwards half a foot again. His
-pink nose broke the surface crust, snuffed, and
-dropped back. The first stage was accomplished,
-but only the first stage. His tube was
-choked and littered end to end. He backed
-nine inches through the loose, reversed, ducked
-down his head, and charged. Part of the rubble
-caked as he drove past, and part was swept
-before him to the outlet. It spurted through
-and sprayed upon the grass. Six charges
-raised a mole hill, and left a half-yard tunnel
-clear. His hands compressed the sides of it to
-smoothness.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">{244}</a></span>
-He made a cave and four runs leading from
-it. Three plunged deep down, and hillocks
-marked their course. The fourth was near the
-surface. Its flimsy roof, pressed upwards from
-below, and dotted end to end with spits of soil,
-cast a betraying shadow.</p>
-
-<p>It was good feeding-ground. In it were
-worms innumerable, slow-minded worms which
-held their ground too long, and footless leathern-coated
-grubs, grubs of beetles and flies, and
-eggs innumerable, grasshoppers' eggs, earwigs'
-eggs, and eggs of smaller fry, some massed
-in sticky clutches, some dispersed.</p>
-
-<p>He toiled and fed alternately. He made a
-nest inside his cave, a mass of leaves and
-grasses dragged down into his surface run (to
-thrust his mouth out was sufficient), and pulled
-or pushed into their proper station.</p>
-
-<p>This done he slept, his head tucked down
-between his hands, his hind feet curled up
-under him.</p>
-
-<p>All but his ears slept soundly.</p>
-
-<p class="center gap-between">*****</p>
-
-<p><i>One-Two&mdash;One-Two&mdash;One-Two.</i> Twin footfalls
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">{245}</a></span>
-almost over him, and with them a soliloquy
-deep-toned.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/245.jpg" width="125" height="182" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Comin' right down valley they be. That's
-them water-works. Down goes springs. Up
-comes nunkey-tumps. I'll get this one for sure.
-Here! Tatters!"</p>
-
-<p>Out like a loosened spring leapt Bartimæus,
-and plunged into his surface run. Half-way
-along it he stopped dead and listened, the tip of
-his pink nose thrust through the roof.</p>
-
-<p>Man's booted tread he knew full well; man's
-voice he knew, but something else was coming,&mdash;something
-which lilted pit-a-pat, something
-with yielding velvet pads,
-something four-footed.
-It danced towards him,
-louder still and louder, till a
-hoarse whisper checked it.
-"Steady you fool! Here
-good dog! Steady!"</p>
-
-<p>The pink nose dropped.
-Only one grass-blade
-stirred, but Tatters saw it.</p>
-
-<p>His every muscle tautened as he pointed.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">{246}</a></span>
-His hair stood stiff upon his back, his eyes
-stared fixedly.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 437px;">
-  <img src="images/246.jpg" width="437" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Only one grass-blade stirred,
-    but Tatters saw it</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>For half a minute he stood tense; then
-Bartimæus breathed, and at his breath a grass-stem
-twitched and flickered.</p>
-
-<p>Tatters upreared and poised himself, stayed
-poised a moment, then, with a vicious dropping
-lunge, stabbed with his forefeet downward. His
-muzzle followed instantly, and screwed and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">{247}</a></span>
-ploughed along the run until the weight of roof
-upcurled checked further progress.</p>
-
-<p>Then only did he raise his head and look back
-shamefaced at his master. He had completely
-missed.</p>
-
-<p>"Tatters, you'm grown old, I reckon&mdash;like
-your Master. Never mind, lad, we'll have 'im
-yet. We'll put a trap down tea-time. Come off
-it now! Think you can scratch him out?"</p>
-
-<p>Tatters was burrowing tooth and nail, uprooting
-grass clumps with his teeth, drumming
-with his forefeet, and showering sods between
-his hind feet backwards. He raised a wistful,
-mud-stained face and whined, shook himself
-doubtfully, started, turned back for one more
-scratch, then galloped to his master's call.</p>
-
-<p>And Bartimæus had been burrowing too&mdash;opening
-a bolt-hole which should close behind
-him, passing the dislodged earth beneath himself,
-and piling it to cover his retreat.</p>
-
-<p>Tatters had all but pinned his body, and that
-would have meant death to him. Tatters <i>had</i>
-pinned his tail, but, with a wriggle, he had
-freed himself, out-distanced the pursuing nose,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">{248}</a></span>
-dived through the nest,
-and twisting sharply right,
-reached the west outlet
-shaft. Fist over feet he
-scuttled down and screwed
-himself into the blinded end. He bored two
-yards zigzagging, then paused for breath. He
-pricked his stumpy whiskers up, starred the
-grey fur about his eyes, spread wide his pinhole
-ears. He was quite safe. The ground
-before, behind, and on all sides of him, was
-dead. Ten minutes passed before he moved,
-then he worked quickly upwards, and broke the
-ground beneath a clump of thistles.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/248.jpg" width="125" height="95" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>"They've gone," said a small piping voice
-above him.</p>
-
-<p>The nose of Bartimæus, pink and quivery,
-had issued first, his bullet head had followed,
-then his great hands and shoulders. The sunbeams
-played upon his coat, and waves of
-limpid shimmery blue crept softly to and fro
-in it.</p>
-
-<p>"They've gone," the Harvest Mouse repeated.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">{249}</a></span>
-"Excellent!" said Bartimæus. "I can't
-see who I am talking to&mdash;this awful glare!&mdash;but
-it will pass&mdash;and meanwhile I can guess at
-you. You are a mouse; a small mouse, with
-sharp-pointed toes, a blunted tail, and a warm-orange
-coat."</p>
-
-<p>"How did you know that?" said the Harvest
-Mouse.</p>
-
-<p>"I heard you, and I felt you, and I smelt
-you," said Bartimæus. "You ran up just
-before I put my nose out. I heard your tail
-flick after you. I heard the leaves crack underneath
-your feet. I felt and smelt your colour.
-If you lived underground like me, you'd notice
-things."</p>
-
-<p>"Give me the sunshine," said the Harvest
-Mouse (its beauty doubled on her coat). "If
-you could see what I
-can see you'd go back
-home."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/249.jpg" width="200" height="165" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>"How's that?" said Bartimæus.</p>
-
-<p>"It's near the
-fence," the Harvest
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">{250}</a></span>
-Mouse replied, "you'd better run and look
-at it."</p>
-
-<p>"It would take a lot to scare <i>me</i>," said Bartimæus,
-and puffed his little chest out. His
-chest was like the mouse's back, warm
-orange.</p>
-
-<p>"This will scare you," she said. "You
-strike from here towards the sun and you can't
-miss it. It throws a shadow at you."</p>
-
-<p>"I'm off," said Bartimæus, and straightway
-started burrowing.</p>
-
-<p>The Harvest Mouse stood up full length,
-and watched his ripple fading into distance.
-Then she dropped down to earth.</p>
-
-<p>"That was a quite nice Mole," she said, "it
-really <i>is</i> a pity."</p>
-
-<p>A surface run is child's play to a Mole. He
-bores it almost at his surface pace. The roof
-springs ready-moulded from his back, and
-lengthens like a paid-out rope behind him.</p>
-
-<p>The fence was reached so suddenly that
-Bartimæus stubbed his nose against it. He
-bit and tore it, thinking it was root, then,
-finding it too hard for him&mdash;it was red teak&mdash;worked
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">{251}</a></span>
-ten yards back and thrust his head and
-shoulders above ground.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 415px;">
-  <img src="images/251.jpg" width="415" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Harvest Mouse stood up full length</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The sun was low behind the fence. The
-shadow of it lengthened out towards him and,
-in between its clefts, crept dazzling gold-red
-rays. For full ten minutes Bartimæus' head
-swayed nodding side to side. Now and again
-he twitched one hand impatiently. He fought
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">{252}</a></span>
-for a clear vision. Each time he faced the
-dazzling streams of light, his head fell worsted
-sideways, and minutes passed before he could
-look up again.</p>
-
-<p>At last their brilliance faded, and, somewhat
-to the right of him, a stunted bush took
-shape.</p>
-
-<p>The stem of it loomed dark in the fence
-shadow; the leaves were darker still&mdash;and there
-was something queer about the leaves. They
-were too large, too black, too solid.</p>
-
-<p>The breeze could hardly stir them, and,
-when they stirred, it was as though they spun.</p>
-
-<p>No more could be determined certainly. He
-left his run bent on a closer vision.</p>
-
-<p>It was no bush at all. It was a thick-stemmed
-alder-branch staked in the soil. The
-leaves were moles&mdash;moles like himself, or rather
-moles which had been like himself. For all
-were dead. Their bodies dangled pitifully, or,
-with poor shrivelled outstretched hands, spun as
-the breeze compelled them.</p>
-
-<p>It was too much for Bartimæus' nerves.
-He turned about and fled, crashed luckily
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">{253}</a></span>
-through his own tunnel's roof, and ran as
-though mole-ghosts were at his heels.</p>
-
-<p>And something ran ahead of him, and
-reached the thistle half a
-yard in front.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/253.jpg" width="200" height="360" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Did you find it?" said the Harvest Mouse. She sat at her old station
-nibbling.</p>
-
-<p>"You beast," said Bartimæus, "you heartless little beast."</p>
-
-<p>The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant.</p>
-
-<p>"You're blinder than I thought," she said.</p>
-
-<p>"It was a mean trick," muttered Bartimæus.</p>
-
-<p>"It was a good turn," said the Harvest
-Mouse.</p>
-
-<p>"Now listen, for I know this meadow end
-to end. It is no place for Moles. Ask
-the red-coated Meadow Mouse. Ask the
-Pygmy Shrew. Ask any one who really
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">{254}</a></span>
-knows. Worse things than dogs come into
-it."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/254.jpg" width="200" height="178" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse. "Oh, never wait for weasels in a
-run. I really thought that you were one behind me." This to Bartimæus.</p>
-
-<p>"Cats!" said the Pygmy Shrew. Vainly did Bartimæus strive to see
-her&mdash;a sorrel leaf concealed her, head to tail.</p>
-
-<p>"Worse than dogs. Worse than weasels.
-Worse than cats," said the Harvest Mouse.
-"TRAPS!"</p>
-
-<p>"We Harvest Mice are never trapped, and
-stump-tail mice are only trapped by chance&mdash;or
-their own folly. I saw one once. He walked
-inside because it rained in torrents. Down
-went the door, and he was drowned, with cheese
-afloat all round him."</p>
-
-<p>"Cheese is good," said the Meadow Mouse.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">{255}</a></span>
-"Cheese is glorious," said the Pygmy
-Shrew.</p>
-
-<p>"There you are. You'd go anywhere for
-cheese," said the Harvest Mouse. "One bite&mdash;a
-snap behind&mdash;and then where are you?"</p>
-
-<p>"I'm out in front," said the Pygmy Shrew.</p>
-
-<p>"You'll try that once too often," said the
-Harvest Mouse.</p>
-
-<p>"Now I hate cheese&mdash;the smell of it spells
-danger. But there are traps and traps&mdash;and
-the worst traps are traps with nothing in
-them."</p>
-
-<p>"That's so," said the Meadow Mouse.</p>
-
-<p>"You can smell them, can't you?" said
-Bartimæus.</p>
-
-<p>"You can smell them if you go slow
-enough," said the Harvest Mouse, "but when
-do <i>you</i> go slow? Now mark my words. It's
-just about your sleeping time. You'll sleep for
-your full hour, then you'll wake hungry.
-You'll rush full tilt until you reach your slant.
-You'll rush down that, you'll rush along your
-gallery. <i>Won't</i> you now?"</p>
-
-<p>"P'raps," muttered Bartimæus. He had
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">{256}</a></span>
-withdrawn his nose below, and sleep was stealing
-over him.</p>
-
-<p>"Well, don't!" said the Harvest Mouse.</p>
-
-<p>"Don't!" said the Meadow Mouse.</p>
-
-<p>"Don't!" said the Pygmy.</p>
-
-<p>"Don't what?" said Bartimæus in his sleep.</p>
-
-<p>"Don't rush!" said the Harvest Mouse.
-"Don't rush. Don't rush!"</p>
-
-<p class="center gap-between">*****</p>
-
-<p>He slept for his full hour and woke to find
-the Pygmy at his side. "It's in your centre
-gallery," she whispered. "I've slipped right
-through it twice."</p>
-
-<p>"My <i>centre</i> gallery?" shouted Bartimæus.
-"My <i>centre</i> gallery? I'll have my centre
-gallery clear."</p>
-
-<p>He started burrowing straightway.</p>
-
-<p>"Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind.
-"Don't rush! It's death to rush!"</p>
-
-<p>And yet it was his rush that saved him.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/257.jpg" width="500" height="407" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The crumbled earth which still lay in the
-bolt-hole, melted before it. Part slipped to
-either side of him. Part massed before his
-plunging head, and, reaching the clear downshaft,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">{257}</a></span>
-dropped. With it there dropped a stone&mdash;a
-rounded half-inch stone, which danced along
-the gallery at the foot, cannoned from side to
-side of it, spun round and pulled up short, six
-inches in advance of him. His senses signalled
-something in his path. His senses signalled a
-clear passage through it, and a clear space beyond
-it. His senses urged more pace. So he crashed
-on. He stubbed his hands against a ring of
-iron: the ring gave way: there was a snap and
-two iron jaws had gripped his waist. But for
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">{258}</a></span>
-the stone which jammed against the clinch of them, he must have met his
-death. And death itself had scarcely brought more torture. It was as
-though the half of him sped on while half remained behind. The back
-wrench left him senseless, and so the Pygmy found him. It was the
-pit-pat of her on his fur, the cobweb flutter of her questionings, which
-roused him back to life.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/258.jpg" width="200" height="452" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">His Fortress, his own Fortress, had been breached</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"I'm done," he muttered, "done as sure as
-sure."</p>
-
-<p>"Not you!" she answered bravely, "the
-trap's not closed&mdash;not half. <i>Wriggle</i>, dear
-Uncle, <i>wriggle</i>!"</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">{259}</a></span>
-And Bartimæus wriggled.</p>
-
-<p>He wriggled right; he wriggled left; he
-wriggled up; he wriggled down; he brought his
-hands to bear upon the iron and with a supreme
-twist he wriggled free.</p>
-
-<p>Then he saw red.</p>
-
-<p>He flung himself against the trap, and bit at
-it, and scratched at it, and shook it with his
-shoulders, and heaved and strained and wrenched
-at it, until it lay upturned upon the surface.
-He was convulsed with windy gusts of rage:
-nose-tip to tail he boiled; nor did he gain composure
-until the field was far behind, and he had
-reached the smooth-faced tube which led to his
-own fortress. Hand over foot he sped the length
-of it, dived down the <b>U</b>-shaped entrance hole,
-bobbed up again and climbed into his nest.</p>
-
-<p>His troubles were not over.</p>
-
-<p>His fortress, his own fortress, had been
-breached. The nest lay open to the day, windswept.</p>
-
-<p>For a full hour he toiled repairing it, then,
-mole-tired, coiled to sleep.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">{261}</a></div>
-
- <h2>SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON<br />
- <small>(NOVEMBER)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse open">"''Tis green! 'tis green, Sir, I assure ye.'</div>
-<div class="verse">'Green!' cries the other in a fury.</div>
-<div class="verse">'Why, Sir, d'ye think I've lost my eyes?'</div>
-<div class="verse">''Twere no great loss,' the friend replies,</div>
-<div class="verse">'For if they always serve you thus,</div>
-<div class="verse">'You'll find them but of little use.'"</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">I wonder</span>
-how many of you know these
-lines? Not so very long ago most young
-people used to have to learn the poem from
-which they are taken, but I don't think the
-poem can be quite such a favourite as it used
-to be. Perhaps we are all getting to be such
-good naturalists that we know it is not quite
-true, for, though Chamæleons change their
-colours in a very wonderful way, they do not
-go red, white, and blue, in the way which the
-poem makes out.</p>
-
-<p>I think I must tell you a little story about
-a Chamæleon, though some of you may perhaps
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">{262}</a></span>
-have heard it before. An old lady once
-had a pet Chamæleon which she was very fond
-of, and which her manservant, John, used to
-look after. He was very fond of the Chamæleon
-too, and he used to amuse himself by putting
-it on to different coloured things in his room
-and watching it change colour. Well, one
-day, the old lady had a friend to tea, and she
-thought she would like to show her the
-Chamæleon, so she rang for John.</p>
-
-<p>"John," she said, "bring in the Chamæleon."</p>
-
-<p>John looked very sorry for himself. "Please
-ma'am," he said, "I can't."</p>
-
-<p>"Can't?" said his mistress. "Why
-not?"</p>
-
-<p>John looked still more confused. "Please,
-ma'am," he said, "he's gone."</p>
-
-<p>"Why, how is that?" said the lady.</p>
-
-<p>"Well, ma'am, I was playing with him,
-and I put him against my baize apron, and he
-turned green."</p>
-
-<p>"Well?"</p>
-
-<p>"And then I put him against the red tray,
-ma'am, and he turned red."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">{263}</a></span>
-"Yes, yes! Of course he would."</p>
-
-<p>"And then I put him against your tartan
-plaid, ma'am, and&mdash;<i>and he just bust hisself</i>."</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 365px;">
-  <img src="images/263.jpg" width="365" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">You can see his Eye looking back over
-    his Shoulder in this Picture</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>I am afraid that that story is not altogether
-true either.</p>
-
-<p>I must try to explain to you how a Chamæleon
-changes colour. Of course you all know
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">{264}</a></span>
-that there are black men, and brown men,
-and copper-coloured men, and yellow men,
-and what we call white men; and you know,
-too, that among white men some have much
-darker skins than others.</p>
-
-<p>Now the colour of people depends a little
-on the colour of their blood, for there is a
-network of tiny veins in the lower part of
-their skin, but it depends even more on
-millions of little specks of yellowish and
-brownish paint which lie in the upper part of
-their skin. A negro may be as black as your
-hat outside, but his blood is red all the same,
-and he looks black because the little specks
-of paint in the upper part of his skin are very
-dark and hide the red blood behind them.
-When people change colour it is because for
-one cause or another the colour of their blood
-can be more plainly, or less plainly, seen;
-and, when this cause is taken away, their old
-colour returns, for the little specks of paint
-have not altered in themselves at all.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 400px;">
-  <img src="images/265.jpg" width="400" height="343" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">You can see his Hands and Feet well in
-    this Picture</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/267f1.jpg" width="164" height="450" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>In Chamæleons, however, and several other
-creatures, which change colour much more
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">{265}</a></span>
-than we do, and keep their changed colour
-for quite a long time, the specks of paint lie
-in the <i>lower</i> part of the skin, and often there
-are numbers of them clustered together as if
-they had been pressed down tight into little
-bags. These clusters of paint specks have
-the power of branching out like sea anemones,
-and afterwards pulling themselves together
-again like sea anemones when they are
-frightened. When they are spread out so as
-to be as large as possible, the Chamæleon is
-dark-coloured; and when they are drawn
-in so as to be as small as possible, the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">{266}</a></span>
-Chamæleon is light coloured; and when, as is
-really most usual, they are spread out in one
-part of his body and drawn in in another, the
-Chamæleon is piebald. I expect you will be
-curious to know what colour the specks of
-paint are, and whether they are always the
-same. They are so small that one needs a
-powerful microscope to see them; but, as far
-as we can tell, they are always brownish or
-reddish, so that the greens and blues which
-are often to be seen in patches on a Chamæleon
-have to be accounted for in some other way.
-It would take too long to explain the blues
-and greens to you thoroughly, but I think I
-can give you one little hint about them. You
-all know what mother-of-pearl looks like.
-If you hold a piece one way it seems a dull
-grey all over, but if you hold it another you
-see all the colours of the rainbow, and you
-can even make the colours move about it if
-you handle it properly. Now if the colours
-were paint they would not move about, though
-they might not be so bright in some positions
-as in others, and for the present you
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">{267}</a></span>
-must be satisfied to know that a Chamæleon
-skin, besides holding clusters
-of paint-specks which change
-their shape, is so wonderfully
-made that it can show
-mother-of-pearl colours as
-well.</p>
-
-<p>A grown-up Chamæleon is usually greenish in the daytime, with brown
-patches on his sides. When he goes to sleep at night he turns
-cream-coloured and his patches become yellowish. A baby Chamæleon is
-snowy white, and doesn't get spotted even when he is angry or excited,
-as a grown-up Chamæleon always does.</p>
-
-<p>Now for the Chamæleon pictures. First
-you must notice his eyes. He has enormous
-eyeballs, but instead of having two eyelids to
-each, as we have, he has one eyelid to each
-(it is really made up of two stuck together),
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">{268}</a></span>
-with a tiny round hole in the centre for his
-eye to look through. This is queer enough,
-but there is something even queerer about a
-Chamæleon's eyes. He can move either eyeball
-up or down or sideways, but he hardly
-ever moves both the same way, so that he
-has quite the most wonderful squint in the
-world, and often keeps one eye looking over
-his shoulder while the other looks straight in
-front of him.</p>
-
-<p>Next you must look at his long, skinny
-arms and legs, and especially at his hands
-and feet. Like ourselves he has five fingers
-or toes on each, but they are differently
-arranged from ours. You must remember,
-of course, that our thumbs are really fingers.
-On each hand a Chamæleon has three thumbs
-and two fingers, and on each foot he has two
-great toes and three ordinary toes.</p>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">{269}</a></div>
-
- <h2>THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS<br />
- <small>(DECEMBER)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/269.jpg" width="200" height="213" alt=""/>
-  <table id="ill269" summary="">
-
-   <tr>
-    <td>Top Row</td>
-    <td class="nuts">Nuts gnawed by</td>
-    <td>Meadow Mice</td>
-   </tr>
-
-   <tr>
-    <td>Second Row</td>
-    <td class="nuts">"</td>
-    <td>Dormice</td>
-   </tr>
-
-   <tr>
-    <td>Third Row</td>
-    <td class="nuts">"</td>
-    <td>Field Mice</td>
-   </tr>
-
-  </table>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">I am</span>
-going to end the articles in this book by telling you how you may
-best see for yourselves some of the queer creatures which I have
-photographed, for the real beasties are far, far
-more interesting than any photographs of
-them can be, and they are not so very difficult
-to see if only you go the right way about it.
-I think the Winter is as good a season as
-any to begin in, at any rate with the fur-folk,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">{270}</a></span>
-for there is sure to be plenty of mud, which
-is a splendid thing for footprints to show up
-on, and there may be a fall of snow, which
-will tell you more in a day of the coming
-and goings of your little brothers, than you
-could learn without it in a year.</p>
-
-<p>If you put on your thickest boots and go
-out into the fields and along the hedgerows,
-after a heavy snowfall, you will find thousands
-and thousands of footprints. Most of these
-will be the footprints of birds, but some, you
-will see at once, belong to four-footed creatures.
-I am showing you pictures of some of the
-commonest of these so that you may know
-them the next time you see them. I have
-left out Bunny-Rabbit on purpose, because I
-think you will be able to find out what his
-curious footprints are like for yourselves, and
-will remember them better that way.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 361px;">
-  <img src="images/271.jpg" width="361" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Weasel's Trail</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>We will begin with the Weasel's trail in the
-picture on the opposite page. You will see that
-there are two different looking trails showing,
-but they both belong to the same weasel.
-The reason they look so different is that one
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">{271}</a></span>
-set are fresh and the other set are a day old.
-There has been a slight thaw, and this has
-melted the snow so that the oldest trail has
-fallen in a little. All the trails lead to a
-woodpile, and I used, after the snow had all
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">{272}</a></span>
-gone, to go to that woodpile in the evening
-and wait for the weasel to come out, and
-watch him play, which he always did for
-some time before he started hunting.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 400px;">
-  <img src="images/272.jpg" width="400" height="377" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Where the Weasel met the Mice</span><br />
-    The mice had made quite a beaten track from one hole to
-    another&mdash;this you can see at the top of the picture. The
-    other tracks are the weasel's, except one, which shows the
-    imprint of a mouse-tail</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It was quite exciting to follow that little Weasel's
-trail in the snow. I came to where he had
-startled a moor-hen and to where he had
-startled a rook, and to where he had had a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">{273}</a></span>
-splendid game chasing mice. I am showing
-you a picture of this, and you will notice at once
-the line down the centre of one of the tracks,
-which is made by Mousey's tail. Another
-of the pictures shows you two mouse-tracks
-running to separate mouse-holes, which I was
-very glad to know about, and which I don't
-think I should ever have seen but for the
-tell-tale snow. A Rat's track is much the
-same, only larger; and a Stoat's track is the
-same as a Weasel's, only larger. A Hedgehog
-does not often come out in the snow,
-but he does sometimes and leaves a very
-smudgy track behind him, for he drags his
-fur along the ground.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/274.jpg" width="500" height="438" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Where The Weasel met the Rook</span><br />
-    You can see where the Rook's wing hit the snow</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/275.jpg" width="200" height="303" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Two Mouse Trails leading to holes in the
-    snow</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Snow shows one much more than mud, but,
-unless it is of just the right softness the prints
-in it are apt to be splodgy, and I don't think
-you ever get so perfect a track in snow as you
-sometimes do in mud. The pictures of the
-Vixen's and the Otter's footprints will show
-you what I mean. A Vixen's footprints are
-smaller than a Fox's, and a Fox's footprints
-are smaller than most people think, indeed a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">{274}</a></span>
-Fox is a smaller animal than most people
-think. I have a little wire-haired terrier
-whose footprints are much larger than those
-of a Vixen. At the same time it is not very
-easy to distinguish a Fox's track from that of
-a small dog. Generally a Dog's claws make
-their mark as well as the pads, and this does
-not often happen with the Fox; but I think
-a better way of telling the difference is to
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">{275}</a></span>
-remember that a Fox's pads are more oval-shaped
-than a Dog's. You will always, I think, be able to tell an Otter's
-footprints (some people call them the Otter's seal) by their size, and
-by their leading to or from the water. Usually the claws can be clearly
-traced and sometimes the webbing of the feet as well. I have never seen
-clean-cut
-Badger's footprints&mdash;all I have met with
-have been very broad and splodgy, more
-smears than patterns&mdash;and I have never seen
-a Marten's trail at all.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 377px;">
-  <img src="images/276.jpg" width="377" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Fox's Footprints</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Footprints tell us a good deal of what is
-going on about us, and so do "runs" in the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">{276}</a></span>
-grass, and "runs" in the hedges. But, of
-course, there are other things to be looked for.
-Often one finds the remains of beasties' meals,
-nuts for instance. Nuts with clean-cut round
-holes in them have been gnawed by Dormice,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">{277}</a></span>
-nuts with jagged holes by Red Meadow Mice
-and Wood Mice, nuts split clean in half most
-likely by Squirrels. Otters leave half-eaten
-fish about sometimes, and scattered broken
-eggshells tell you where Stoats have been
-running the hedgerow. If you notice where
-you find these things and keep your eyes
-open, you are sure in time to see what you
-are looking for.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center">
-  <img src="images/277.jpg" width="500" height="427" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">{278}</a></div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 323px;">
-  <img src="images/278.jpg" width="323" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">And the last thing that Winnie remembers was
-    the Great Green Grasshopper's Wife hurrying the little
-    Skipjacks off to bed.</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">{279}</a></div>
-
- <h2>THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND<br />
- <small>(CHRISTMAS DAY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/279.jpg" width="150" height="131" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">"I beg</span>
-your pardon!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.</p>
-
-<p>"I think I ought to beg yours," said Winnie politely.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps, however, you
-would like me to begin at the very beginning.
-Very well, then; but you must remember that,
-for most of it, I can only tell you what Winnie
-told me. It all seems to have happened between
-Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On Christmas
-Eve, our Cricket, who lives in the kitchen
-behind the hot-water pipes, had started chirruping
-as usual, and I had gone into the library, and
-hunted out an old, old Christmas book and
-started reading to my small friends a story
-which began with a cricket singing against a
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">{280}</a></span>
-tea-kettle. Then we had had a snapdragon,
-and then the waits had come round, so everything
-had been as Christmassy as ever it could
-be. Just as the waits finished Winnie had got
-into bed and snuggled herself up. All this
-I can vouch for myself, for I was there all
-the time, and I can remember how good the
-snapdragon was, though I did not eat quite so
-many raisins as one little girl. However, as
-she said afterwards, "Even if I did eat thirty,
-Father, it was quite worth it."</p>
-
-<p>So much for the true part of the tale&mdash;now
-for the magic. Winnie tells me that she never
-went to sleep at all! The waits and the cricket
-and the snapdragon and the kettle were all
-mixed up in her head, and the snapdragon had
-turned hungry and was trying to snap up the
-waits, and the kettle was puffing like a little
-traction engine, and in between the puffs there
-was a sad little chirrupy sound which she
-thought must be the cricket. It seemed only
-kind then that she should slip out of bed, listen
-on the landing, and creep down to the kitchen
-to see how the cricket was getting on. She
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">{281}</a></span>
-found him sitting on the hearthstone and
-watching the people in the fire going to
-church.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/281.jpg" width="500" height="399" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Winnie tells me that She never went to
- sleep at All!</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"I can't attend to you now," he said, "I'm
-just going out."</p>
-
-<p>Winnie had half expected him to speak, but
-she was a little frightened all the same, and a
-little curious too.</p>
-
-<p>"Do take me with you," she said. "Where
-are you going?"</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">{282}</a></span>
-"Where am I going?" said the Cricket in
-a surprised tone. "Why, it's Christmas
-Eve!"</p>
-
-<p>"Yes, isn't it lovely!" said Winnie; "and
-to-morrow there'll be presents. But where are
-you going?"</p>
-
-<p>"I'm going to be a wait, of course," said the
-Cricket. "I've been practising all the evening.
-Listen!"</p>
-
-<p>He ducked his head and lifted up his wings,
-and a chirrup fluttered out of them and ran all
-round the dresser. It <i>was</i> a chirrup! It
-wriggled in between the plates and dived into
-the soup-tureen, and climbed the tea-cup
-handles, and danced upon the saucers, until
-the sour deal boards, which had had all the
-softness scrubbed out of them (and were cross-grained
-to begin with), felt little thrills of
-pleasure running down their backs. Then it
-climbed up the wall and rattled the dish-covers,
-and at last it died away with a little squeak
-inside the coffee-pot.</p>
-
-<p>"What do you think of that?" said the
-Cricket triumphantly.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">{283}</a></span></p>
-
-<p>"It's beautiful," said Winnie; "but where
-are you going?"</p>
-
-<p>"You'll see presently," said the Cricket; "and
-I wish you wouldn't chatter so. You nearly
-made me forget him."</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/283.jpg" width="500" height="409" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Cricket was sitting on the
-    Hearthstone watching the People in the Fire going to
-    Church</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Forget who?" said Winnie.</p>
-
-<p>"Our drummer," said the Cricket. "Keep
-still&mdash;I heard him a minute ago."</p>
-
-<p>There was a long pause&mdash;so long that Winnie
-almost screamed, for there was nothing but the
-clock-tick to listen to.</p>
-
-<p>Then something joined the clock-tick&mdash;<i>One-two-three-four,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">{284}</a></span>
-pit-tip, tip-pit, one-two-three-four,
-pat-tap, tap-pat</i> (just like soldiers a long
-way off, as Winnie explained), and presently the
-drummer himself appeared. He was a very
-small, squat, round-shouldered beetle, and he
-came out of a hole in the beam which ran
-across the ceiling.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 300px;">
-  <img src="images/284.jpg" width="300" height="235" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Pair of Them dropped ... on to the
-    Edge of the Kitchen Table</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"What a nuisance it all is!" he yawned. "I
-was just going off to sleep when I heard you.
-Is there no one else who can drum?"</p>
-
-<p>"No one who can drum like you," said the
-Cricket, which is far the best way to answer
-these questions.</p>
-
-<p>"Very well," said the Beetle, "but my wife
-must come too," and the pair of them dropped
-with two little flops on to the edge of the kitchen
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">{285}</a></span>
-table. Then the clock chimed in&mdash;<i>one-two-three-four</i>,
-right away up to eleven.</p>
-
-<p>"Shall <i>I</i> come too?" said a mean little oily
-voice from under the coal-scuttle. Winnie
-could just see the Cockroach's whiskers making
-quivery passes in the air, and she sat down and
-drew her nightie round her feet as tight as ever
-she could. She was quite relieved to hear the
-Cricket's answer.</p>
-
-<p>"Of course not," he said; "you never played
-anything in your life."</p>
-
-<p>"It's all the same to me," said the Cockroach.
-"I've given up those silly meadows long ago.
-Good-night, lunatics!" and he drew his whiskers
-in and disappeared.</p>
-
-<p>"Was that eleven?" said the House Cricket,
-taking no notice of his rudeness. "We've no
-time to lose then. Come along!"</p>
-
-<p>Winnie climbed up on his back as if it were
-the most natural thing in the world, and the two
-Beetles climbed up behind her. The drummer
-Beetle started playing at once&mdash;<i>one-two-three-four,
-pit-tip, tip-pit; one-two-three-four, pat-tap,
-tap-pat</i>&mdash;and the whole four of them sailed
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">{286}</a></span>
-up the chimney. It was not hot (as Winnie
-explained), for the fire had burnt very low and that
-was what had beaten the kettle, but it <i>was</i> sooty,
-and she remembers quite well longing to see the
-clean, white snow on the roof. The Cricket went
-up crab-wise&mdash;a little jump to one side and a
-little jump to the other; so he took quite a long
-time to reach the chimney-pot, and when he
-crawled on to the edge of it the snow was all
-gone. ("That was the queerest thing of all,
-Father," said Winnie "there were leaves and
-flowers and sunshine, and it was just like
-summer.")</p>
-
-<p>"Now hold tight," said the Cricket, "while
-I unpack my wings."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/286.jpg" width="150" height="112" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>This was quite a long business, for the
-Cricket had to keep moistening his fingers, and
-Winnie and the Beetles had to keep crawling
-up and down his back, so as not to be in the
-way. At last everything was ready, and the
-Cricket poised himself on the edge of the
-chimney, spread his wings wide
-apart, and slid into the air.
-Winnie was just a little frightened
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">{287}</a></span>
-at first, and she put her head down close
-to the Cricket's neck and shut
-her eyes and dug her fingers
-into the chinks of his back;
-but presently she felt that it
-was no good being frightened,
-for they were going quite
-smoothly, and the Cricket's
-wing-covers were high up on
-either side of her, so that she could hardly have
-fallen off if she had tried to. Soon she felt
-brave enough to raise her head very carefully
-and look about her. The kitchen chimney was
-some way behind, the great elm on her left, and
-the river close in front. Just before they
-reached the river the Cricket's wings buzzed
-like blue-bottles, and she felt they were going
-upwards. Then came another long, gentle glide,
-and the Cricket landed on the blackberry hedge
-at the bottom of the meadow.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/287.jpg" width="150" height="195" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>"You must all get off here," he said.</p>
-
-<p>Winnie stepped off his back on to a slippery
-thorn, missed her footing, and fell on the top of
-the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">{288}</a></span>
-"I beg your pardon!" said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife.</p>
-
-<p>"I think I ought to beg yours," said Winnie
-politely&mdash;which is where the story began some
-time ago.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/288.jpg" width="500" height="370" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">"I beg your Pardon," said the Great
-    Green Grasshopper's Wife</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Great Green Grasshopper's wife was
-more amused than offended.</p>
-
-<p>"Don't mention it," she said. "I suppose
-you've come to help us, and I'm very glad to
-see you. It is really most unfortunate, but I
-couldn't possibly let my husband come&mdash;the
-first Christmas Eve he has missed for years&mdash;but,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">{289}</a></span>
-as I said to him, 'If your leg's frostbitten,
-you're much better in your hole.'
-Don't you agree with me?"</p>
-
-<p>"Oh, yes, I think so," said Winnie, who felt
-she must say something.</p>
-
-<p>"Of course we shall miss him very much,"
-said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife, "but if
-the Field Cricket isn't too nervous, I dare say we
-shall pull through. I see you have brought our
-drummer with you, and here is the Mole Cricket
-coming up, and the Wood Cricket, and I saw
-the Bush-cheeps a moment ago. Do you really
-mean to tell me that you have never met any
-of them? Then I must introduce you. This
-is the Mole Cricket. You can't ever mistake
-him if you have once seen his feet; and this is
-the Field Cricket&mdash;you can't mistake a blackamoor
-like him either; and this is the Wood
-Cricket with the check trowsers; and the Bush-cheep
-always wears a brown tail-coat and a
-greeny waistcoat. Now you all know each
-other and we must get to work. What do you
-play?"</p>
-
-<p>Winnie had been getting a little uneasy all
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">{290}</a></span>
-this time, for the Crickets had been unpacking
-their instruments and making little scrapes just
-like the band before the pantomime, and she
-had felt that she would be expected to do something
-too, and had made up her mind as to
-what she would say if she were asked.</p>
-
-<p>"I can play a grass-blade a little," she said.</p>
-
-<p>"Well, there's lots of grass about," said the
-Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "Let's hear
-you do it."</p>
-
-<p>So Winnie picked a big blade of grass and
-jammed it tight between the balls of her thumbs
-and pressed her lips hard against it and began
-to play. The first note sent the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife's hind legs straight up in
-the air, turned the Mole Cricket and the House
-Cricket and the Wood Cricket and the Bush-cheeps
-head-over-heels, and drove the Field
-Cricket into his hole.</p>
-
-<p>"Easy, easy!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife. "You nearly blew my tail off.
-Can't you play more softly?"
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">{291}</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 341px;">
-  <img src="images/291.jpg" width="341" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center">THIS IS THE MOLE CRICKET</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"I'll try," said Winnie.</p>
-
-<p>"Please do," said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">{292}</a></span>
-wife. "There, I knew what would
-happen. See what you've done."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 250px;">
-  <img src="images/292.jpg" width="250" height="273" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">This is the Field Cricket</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Field Cricket had all but disappeared, and there were only two
-little black legs sticking out of his hole.</p>
-
-<p>"It's no use your trying to play in there," said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife. "Nobody will hear you at all."</p>
-
-<p>"I can't help it," said the Field Cricket;
-"my nerves are completely upset."</p>
-
-<p>"See what you've done," said the Great
-Green Grasshopper's wife again. "It will take
-him twenty minutes to recover."</p>
-
-<p>And she was quite right. For twenty
-long minutes they had to wait and look
-at one another, and even at the end of that
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">{293}</a></span>
-time the Field Cricket still seemed very
-shaken.</p>
-
-<p>"I will do my best now," he said at last,
-"but I simply <i>must</i> have my head hidden."
-He had backed out of his hole a little way and lifted up his
-wing-covers. Every now and then he chirruped softly.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 250px;">
-  <img src="images/293.jpg" width="250" height="381" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">And this is the Wood Cricket</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Well, it's better than nothing," said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife, "and you certainly have some excuse this time. Now let's begin."
-She climbed a little higher in the hedge, tapped sharply with
-one hind leg, and looked about her.</p>
-
-<p>"Are you all ready?" she said. "Drums?"</p>
-
-<p>"Here!" said the Beetles.</p>
-
-<p>"First violin?"</p>
-
-<p>"Here!" said the Field Cricket.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">{294}</a></span>
-"Second violin?"</p>
-
-<p>"Here!" said the House Cricket.</p>
-
-<p>"Viola?"</p>
-
-<p>"Here!" said the Wood Cricket.</p>
-
-<p>"'Cello?"</p>
-
-<p>"Here!" said the Mole Cricket.</p>
-
-<p>"Flutes?"</p>
-
-<p>"Here!" said the Bush-cheeps.</p>
-
-<p>"Grass-blade?"</p>
-
-<p>"Here!" said Winnie, screwing her lips up
-very tight.</p>
-
-<p>"Good!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife, and she reared herself up backwards and
-began to beat time with her hind legs.</p>
-
-<p>"Two bars first," she said. "Now!"</p>
-
-<p>At the third bar they all came in very fairly
-together, but before they had played half a
-minute the Great Green Grasshopper's wife
-stopped short.</p>
-
-<p>("It was really worse than the real waits,"
-Winnie explained. "It was like a million little
-glass stoppers being squeaked out of bottles&mdash;and
-they didn't seem to mind the time a bit.")
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">{295}</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The Great Green Grasshopper's wife looked
-at Winnie quite severely.</p>
-
-<p>"I asked you to play softly," she said;
-"you're drowning the whole band."</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 297px;">
-  <img src="images/295.jpg" width="297" height="450" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The First Note sent the Great Green
-    Grasshopper's Wife's Hind Legs straight Up in the Air</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"I <i>can't</i> play more softly than that," said
-Winnie.</p>
-
-<p>"Well, there's only one thing to be done
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">{296}</a></span>
-then," said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-"I must hunt up the Skipjacks."</p>
-
-<p>The Skipjacks are the little grasshoppers
-who live in the fields, and it takes quite a
-number of them to play a tune that you can
-hear.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 266px;">
-  <img src="images/296.jpg" width="266" height="300" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">He had Backed Out of His Hole a Little
- Way and Lifted up His Wing-covers</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Wait for me here," said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife; "I sha'n't be long!" And
-she leapt like a jump-jim-crow and landed three
-yards clear of the hedge.</p>
-
-<p>She really was some time away, but at last
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">{297}</a></span>
-she reappeared driving the Skipjacks in front
-of her.</p>
-
-<p>"It is so troublesome to keep them straight," she explained; "the
-little idiots! Look at them."</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right" style="max-width: 200px;">
-  <img src="images/297.jpg" width="200" height="341" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Great Green Grasshopper's Wife
-    Reared Herself up Backwards and began to beat Time with her
-    Hind Legs</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>They certainly were a queer flock to manage, for they could only move by
-jumps, and when they jumped even they themselves had no idea of where
-they were jumping to. However, by driving them in front of her she
-managed to keep a few of them together, and at last she got them into
-their places.</p>
-
-<p>"You must fiddle," she said, "as you never
-fiddled before. The band shall <i>not</i> be beaten
-by a grass-blade. Now altogether&mdash;<i>one, two,
-three, four</i>!"</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">{298}</a></span>
-It was really much better that time, and
-though Winnie could not pick up the tune,
-everybody else seemed quite pleased with
-themselves.</p>
-
-<p>"<i>That's</i> better!" said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife. "Now again!"</p>
-
-<p>But before the words were out of her mouth
-the great hall clock chimed in, <i>Ting&mdash;Ting&mdash;Ting&mdash;Ting</i>&mdash;&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Midnight!" screamed the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife. "What <i>will</i> become of
-us?"</p>
-
-<p><i>Ting&mdash;Ting&mdash;Ting&mdash;Ting</i>&mdash;&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"It's fast!" cried Winnie: "I know it's
-fast. I put it on myself for getting up tomorrow."</p>
-
-<p>"Are you quite sure?" said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife.</p>
-
-<p>"Quite sure," declared Winnie; "it's five
-minutes fast at least."</p>
-
-<p>"That's a great relief to my mind," said the
-Great Green Grasshopper's wife; "but, of
-course, we must stop at once."</p>
-
-<p>Indeed, the Crickets were already packing
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">{299}</a></span>
-up their instruments, and the last thing that
-Winnie remembers was the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife hurrying the little Skipjacks off
-to bed.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-center">
-  <img src="images/299.jpg" width="300" height="100" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<div class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">{301}</a></div>
-
- <h2>THE PYGMY SHREW<br />
- <small>(BOXING-DAY)</small></h2>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/301.jpg" width="125" height="91" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p class="drop-cap"><span class="uppercase">Few</span>
-know him and the
-careless eye may
-never see him. He is so
-small,&mdash;that four of him
-just stop a mouse-hole;
-so light,&mdash;that ten of him just tilt an ounce.
-Yet, if you search the files, you find him
-eminent. The Pygmy Shrew in Cornwall!
-The Pygmy Shrew in Kent!! The Pygmy
-Shrew in Rutlandshire!!!</p>
-
-<p>Thus fame is garlanded round mystery.</p>
-
-<p>Man's kingdom is brick-built and parchment
-guarded. The beasties have a nobler
-heritage. Fence your broad acres as you
-please, yet they shall quietly share them,
-paying you naught, and taking what they will.
-Water and air and land are theirs by prior,
-nay primeval, right. So shall you bend
-before their quality, and, for their lineage,
-you shall respect them.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">{302}</a></span>
-Something had brushed across the Pygmy's
-nose. He shook off three days' sleep in three
-half-seconds. Where was his tail? Sleeping,
-he swings it up across his face, and gathers
-all four feet within its shelter. His tail was
-there, but in its waking-place, behind him.
-Then something must have moved it. He
-stretched his neck and sniffed, long wheezy
-sniffs which ended in a shiver; then he
-peered down the shaft. He jerked back to
-avoid an avalanche&mdash;a blinding dust-cloud, a
-rattle of small stones, and, in the midst, two
-common shrews close locked.</p>
-
-<p>But I go on too fast.</p>
-
-<p>The stump is close against the rookery-fence.
-It is a stump of quality, a residential
-stump, a maze of winding roots and secret
-chambers, wherein field-folk may live without
-acquaintance. There is a fellow to it in the
-meadow, another fronts the rabbit mound,
-and all three hold like tenants.</p>
-
-<p>The woodmouse first, round-eyed and debonair;
-then the bank-vole, he who is half a
-mouse, with chestnut coat, broad ear and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">{303}</a></span>
-estimable tail; lastly the ranny-noses; the
-common shrew&mdash;a velvet-coated pepper-tempered
-gallant; the Pygmy, who is common
-shrew refined&mdash;purple and orange ripple in
-his fur, and him my Lady Sunshine loves the
-best of all.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 400px;">
-  <img src="images/303.jpg" width="400" height="337" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Woodmouse First, Round-eyed and
- Debonair</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>All live together, yet apart, for, under
-ground, the stumps are intricate. The roots
-twist right and left and back upon themselves,
-and, over and beneath them, are the runs.
-Most are blind alleys, but a few creep on, and
-strike the upper air. The mice and voles
-reserve the lowest depths; they must be near
-the water; moreover they can tunnel where
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">{304}</a></span>
-they will. The common shrews live higher,
-scratch two-inch levels where the rootlets
-aid them, and trust to their quick ears. The
-Pygmy takes what stouter beasties leave; and
-that is how the Pygmy's tail was moved&mdash;his
-sleeping-hole, the mould of some long-fallen
-stone, abutted on the shaft.</p>
-
-<p>That two shrews should be fighting was
-quite usual. Shrews fight to keep their
-limbs in trim; they fight in play; they fight
-in deadly earnest. A veteran shrew is scarred
-in every part of him; great scars like thumbmarks,
-where new growth of fur has failed to
-draw up level with the old.</p>
-
-<p>Yet even shrews need open ground to fight
-on. The Pygmy waited till the dust had
-cleared, then peered into the darkness. The
-scuffling of them could be plainly heard;
-and, sharp above it, rose their vicious war scream.
-The Pygmy knew what that meant&mdash;a
-bolt for upper air and honest fighting.
-He crouched back prudently. They rattled
-past once more in quick succession, the foremost
-gibbering his distress, the hindmost
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">{305}</a></span>
-dumb. But this was dubious measure of their
-quality, for, where there is bare tunnel-room
-for one, one needs must be in front, and, then,
-his only weapon is his voice.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/305.jpg" width="500" height="359" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">He took the Right-hand Surface-run</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The Pygmy sprang up after them. He is
-the burrows' jackal, and takes an interest
-in serious fights. Once on the level ground
-he paused, made three small casts, then took
-the right-hand surface-run.</p>
-
-<p>He was quite right; the combatants had
-passed that way. It was a zigzag run, but
-unimpeded. A drooping grass-stem tangle
-formed its roof, and, through long use, its
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">{306}</a></span>
-sides were brown and withered, as though
-some noxious snake had glided through, and
-poisoned every growing blade it touched. The Pygmy knew it end to end,
-and knew that, where it broke, close to the elm, there was a moss-grown
-clearing. So he took matters quietly, and, lingering as the fancy took
-him, had supped before
-he reached the fighting-ground. The
-common shrews were feinting for an opening.
-He knew them both by sight. One,
-a brown-coated, thick-set scaramouch was
-neighbour to him in the stump. The other
-was a meadow-shrew, of lighter build and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">{307}</a></span>
-colour, but longer and full match in weight.
-The Pygmy rubbed his nose between his
-paws&mdash;a pretty fight was promised.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 250px;">
-  <img src="images/306.jpg" width="259" height="353" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">He could See as well as Hear</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>And others seemed to have got wind of it.
-The grass-stems flicking to and fro betrayed
-them. On every side he heard short, fluttery
-mouse-steps. Above he caught shrill squeaks
-and whimperings; a bat was busy with the
-filmy moths. Below the ground seemed
-shivery&mdash;that was the mole. The Pygmy
-heard and scented him. He crawled discreetly
-up the trunk, and so could see as well
-as hear. In the green tangle round were flitting
-specks&mdash;the voles and mice assembling
-in hot haste. From these his eye passed to
-the combatants. The grey shrew's ear was
-torn, and from it hung one drop of blood.
-This was the lodestone.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/308.jpg" width="500" height="378" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">His Rival, feinting, flicked his Tail
-    too Far, and, in a twinkle, it was seized</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Up from a moss-clump shot a woodmouse
-nose, and, at the back of it, two round black
-eyes looked murder. The Pygmy caught the
-chatter-grince of teeth; the bat still threaded
-needle-notes among the leaves; the leaves
-themselves were whispering; but clear above
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">{308}</a></span>
-these short, crabbed, fretful sounds, he heard
-the steady rumble of the mole. The thing
-perplexed him. Could the expectant ring of
-mice be deaf? The pair that held the stage
-were too absorbed to notice anything.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/309.jpg" width="500" height="393" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Grey Shrew leant against the Trunk and panted</span><br />
-    The brown shrew lay half sideways fronting him</p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left" style="max-width: 250px;">
-  <img src="images/310a.jpg" width="250" height="294" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">With Tangled Tails and rounded Straining
-    Bodies, commenced to Spin</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>It was the brown shrew who got home the
-first. His rival, feinting, flicked his tail too
-far, and, in a twinkle, it was seized. The
-grey shrew swung himself upon his back, and
-kicked with all four paws. But this was
-waste of strength. The shrewmouse has
-forked teeth, teeth that will hold a slippery
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">{309}</a></span>
-rounded beetle, much more a soft square tail.
-So with necessity the spur of valour, he
-twisted round and nipped the brown shrew's
-foot. Both straightway bit their hardest;
-the twinge made both give way. They toppled
-backwards squealing. The grey shrew leant
-against the trunk and panted; the brown
-shrew lay half sideways fronting him, and,
-on all sides, the ring broke into chatterings.
-The Pygmy, trembling with delight, screamed
-out encouragement, but no one heard <i>his</i>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">{310}</a></span>
-screams. The bat dived headlong from
-the leaves, skimmed in between them and
-shot up once more. The woodmouse crept two paces forward, then backed
-abruptly, for they were at grips. Each nipped a loose flap of the
-other's skin, and, bracing all four feet, tugged at its prize. They
-tugged until they toppled sideways; then with claws fastened in each
-other's fur, with tangled tails and rounded straining bodies, commenced
-to spin.</p>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/310b.jpg" width="125" height="89" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>That is the way of shrewmice, much pother
-and slight wounds. Their fights are seldom
-mortal. Rather, they die for want
-of fighting. Their valiant souls
-misfit them.</p>
-
-<div class="block">&nbsp;</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-left">
-  <img src="images/311a1.jpg" width="125" height="102" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-float-right">
-  <img src="images/311a2.jpg" width="125" height="91" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>So this hot-blooded, strenuous
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">{311}</a></span>
-pair spun as one
-living ball across the
-ring, over and over,
-twist and twirl, upside
-and down, faster and faster, until the
-spin itself released them. Then they sat
-back from one another and wobbled like
-spent tops.</p>
-
-<p>The third round started dully. The brown
-shrew, shaken with exertion, lay on his
-back the better to refresh himself. The grey
-shrew, just as weary, crept to an eminence
-above and eyed him
-wickedly. The ring
-was all impatience.</p>
-
-<p>Both soon revived.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 250px;">
-  <img src="images/311b.jpg" width="250" height="315" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Then They lay Head to Tail, and Tail to
-    Head</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 334px;">
-  <img src="images/312.jpg" width="334" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Field-Voles on the Skirts of it
-    could only see between their Betters' Ears</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The brown shrew twisted corkscrew-wise, and landed arched upon his
-toe points. The grey shrew shot beneath him like a whiplash.
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">{312}</a></span>
-Then they lay head to tail, and tail to head.
-The ring drew closer. The field-voles on
-the skirts of it could only see between their
-betters' ears. The bat came to a halt and
-stared. The Pygmy climbed two inches up,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">{313}</a></span>
-and was rewarded. For now both combatants
-saw red.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/313.jpg" width="500" height="330" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Bat came to a Halt and Stared</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>They hurled themselves at random, they
-bit at random, they bucked and somersaulted,
-they spun entwined in loops and twists, in
-double-knotted tangles, in sinuous figures of
-eight. Now one was on his back and now
-the other&mdash;shrewmice reck little which way
-up they fight. Now they sped screaming up
-the trunk and all but reached the Pygmy;
-now they dropped earthward with twin thud,
-and grazed a red vole's nose. So without
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">{314}</a></span>
-pause or respite. They tore and scratched
-and gripped and pulled and wrenched and
-tugged and jumped and squealed until&mdash;&mdash;it
-was an earthquake, a rounded dull upheaval, a
-split and crackle of the moss, a sputter of dry
-dust, and, in the midst, like some queer fungus
-growth, the mole's red nose.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 419px;">
-  <img src="images/314.jpg" width="419" height="500" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Pygmy Climbed Two Inches Up</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>"Flick!" went a woodmouse tail, betokening
-danger. The amphitheatre emptied in
-a moment; voles helter-skelter into cover,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">{315}</a></span>
-bat loose into the sky. The Pygmy tumbled
-earthwards, shot forward, paused, whisked
-up again, and crept behind a flake of
-bark.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 400px;">
-  <img src="images/315.jpg" width="400" height="320" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">Now One was on his Back and now the
-    Other</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The two shrews lay amazed upon their
-backs, and in between them wagged the intruding
-nose.</p>
-
-<p>Slowly it lengthened. Two naked paddle-feet
-passed on the surface, and, like some
-clumsy fish that quits its element, the mole
-plunged into air.</p>
-
-<p>He missed both shrews, who, dashing right
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">{316}</a></span>
-and left of him, entangled him in double-minded
-purpose. Rested the Pygmy, shrunk
-to a rigid wisp of apprehension, ear-straining,
-muscle-tautened, behind a flimsy screen of
-bark.</p>
-
-<p>The mole lurched slowly forward, swaying
-his noddle-head from side to side, nosing
-each inch of ground. Blood had enticed him
-upwards, and blood he meant to taste. It
-seemed as though short measure must content
-him&mdash;a smear upon a grass stem, a drop
-upon a pebble. But presently his nose flung
-up; on either side of it the velvet starred,
-leaving two loop-holes for his pin-head eyes;
-he snuffed and peered about him; his brush-tail
-jerked and quivered; a snarl laid bare his
-teeth; and then, his instinct mastering circumstance,
-he charged, with swift alternate
-strokes, straight at the Pygmy's shelter. Had
-his eye seen? Had his nose smelt? At least
-he had a visible allurement&mdash;a half inch of the
-Pygmy's tail. The Pygmy curled it promptly,
-but, even as it moved, the mole was thundering
-at the bark. The Pygmy squeezed himself
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">{317}</a></span>
-a half inch further, and this half inch
-meant life. The mole had bored his snout
-into the breach, and by a forward wriggle
-brought his teeth to bear.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 500px;">
-  <img src="images/317.jpg" width="500" height="425" alt=""/>
-  <div class="caption">
-    <p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Mole Plunged into the Air</span></p>
-  </div>
-</div>
-
-<p>The outworks broke and crumbled like a
-biscuit. His nose attained the citadel itself,
-but here the assault was checked. Strain as
-he would he could not get fair tooth-hold,
-for, working upwards in cramped quarters,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">{318}</a></span>
-he spent his strength in struggling for a
-purchase.</p>
-
-<p>Only exhaustion stays the hunting mole,
-and such exhaustion ends in death. This
-mole was not exhausted yet.</p>
-
-<p>He screwed his nose unceasingly, forced
-his teeth forward line by line, and ground the
-bark to powder; snatched out his head for
-air, and thrust his hand in place of it;
-snatched back his hand and used his jaws
-once more. Harder and harder still he
-worked, closer and closer still he drew, until
-one claw touched fur.</p>
-
-<p>It was a graze, a skin scrape; the fur shrank
-out of reach, but the mere contact goaded
-him to frenzy.</p>
-
-<p>He squirmed and writhed and strained
-until, by muscle strength alone, he forced
-his head and shoulders through the gap.
-His nose now touched his quarry, his
-hands were squared beneath his chin, palms
-back, and thus, in earth, he might have
-tunnelled far. But the stiff shell of bark
-was obdurate.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">{319}</a></span>
-The white owl helped him out. She caught
-him at the bottom of her swoop, and loosed
-him high up on the elm-tree. Here the white
-owlets welcomed him.</p>
-
-<p>Before she turned, the Pygmy had reached
-home.</p>
-
-<div class="image-center">
-  <img src="images/319.jpg" width="400" height="332" alt=""/>
-</div>
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr />
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-
-<div id="tnote">
-<p>Transcriber's Note.</p>
-
-<p>Apparent typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistencies in
-the use of hyphens have been retained.</p>
-
-<p>Illustrations have been moved to between, or to the start of,
-paragraphs.</p>
-</div>
-
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<p>&nbsp;</p>
-<hr class="full" />
-<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS***</p>
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@@ -1,5448 +0,0 @@
-The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Book of Nimble Beasts, by Douglas English,
-Illustrated by Douglas English
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-
-Title: A Book of Nimble Beasts
-       Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and "Those Sort of People"
-
-
-Author: Douglas English
-
-
-
-Release Date: July 13, 2017  [eBook #55097]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS***
-
-
-E-text prepared by MFR, Chris Pinfield, and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
-available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)
-
-
-
-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file
-      which includes the more than 200 original illustrations.
-      See 55097-h.htm or 55097-h.zip:
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55097/55097-h/55097-h.htm)
-      or
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55097/55097-h.zip)
-
-
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive. See
-      https://archive.org/details/bookofnimblebeas00engliala
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
-
-      Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals.
-
-      Text in bold face is not designated as such.
-
-
-
-
-
-A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS
-
-
- [Illustration: He held himself with an air, his body
- arched, one broad white pad uplifted, his tail curved
- decorously.--IN WEASEL WOOD.]
-
-
-A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS
-
-Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and "Those Sort of People"
-
-by
-
-DOUGLAS ENGLISH
-
-Fellow and Medalist of the Royal Photographic Society
-
-With Over 200 Illustrations
-from Photographs of Living
-Animals Taken by the Author
-
-
-
-
-
-
-London
-Eveleigh Nash & Grayson Ltd.
-148 Strand
-1922
-
-Printed by
-Woods & Sons, Ltd.,
-338-340, Upper Street,
-London, N. 1.
-
-
-
-
- IN MEMORY
- C. J. E.
-
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-                                                                  PAGE
- _JANUARY_
- SOMETHING ABOUT BATS                                               17
-
- _FEBRUARY_
- SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES                                           29
-
- _VALENTINE'S DAY_
- A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO                                        41
-
- _MARCH_
- ANIMALS' NESTS                                                     75
-
- _APRIL_
- SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES                                            89
-
- _LADY DAY_
- BUNNY RABBIT                                                      101
-
- _MAY_
- A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX                                             117
-
- _JUNE_
- TWO WONDERFUL WASPS                                               127
-
- _MIDSUMMER DAY_
- SPINIPES THE SAND-WASP                                            143
-
- _JULY_
- PICTURES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS                                    171
-
- _AUGUST_
- A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE                             179
-
- _LAMMAS DAY_
- IN WEASEL WOOD                                                    187
-
- _SEPTEMBER_
- SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING AND WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING          213
-
- _OCTOBER_
- THE BEASTIES' BED-TIME                                            227
-
- _MICHAELMAS DAY_
- THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMAEUS                                        237
-
- _NOVEMBER_
- SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMAELEON                                      261
-
- _DECEMBER_
- THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS                                        269
-
- _CHRISTMAS DAY_
- THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND                                279
-
- _BOXING-DAY_
- THE PYGMY SHREW                                                   301
-
-
-
-
-ILLUSTRATIONS
-
-
- ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR                                          PAGE
-
- IN WEASEL WOOD
-
-   HE HELD HIMSELF WITH AN AIR, HIS BODY ARCHED, ONE BROAD
-   WHITE PAD UPLIFTED, HIS TAIL CURVED DECOROUSLY        _Frontispiece_
-
- A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO
-
-   THE GREEN TOAD SLOWLY STRETCHED HIMSELF.
-   "THAT?" SAID HE, "THAT'S NOT FRENCH"                             60
-
-   AT THE FIFTH STONE--A BULKY SLANTING ONE--
-   HE SIGHTED THE FRENCH FROG                                       60
-
- SPINIPES, THE SAND WASP
-
-   AN INSTANT'S PAUSE TO SHIFT HER GRIP, AND SHE HAD
-   PUSHED THE GRUB WITHIN THE ENTRANCE                             162
-
-   "TAKE THAT--AND THAT--AND THAT," SAID SPINIPES,
-   AND DROVE HER SHARP STING HOME                                  162
-
- THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND
-
-  AND THE LAST THING WINNIE REMEMBERS WAS THE GREAT
-  GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S WIFE HURRYING THE LITTLE
-  SKIPJACKS OFF TO BED                                             279
-
-
- ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT                                            PAGE
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT BATS
- Natterer's Bat                                                     17
- Lesser Horseshoe Bat                                               19
- The Noctule                                                        20
- The Noctule                                                        21
- Lesser Horseshoe Bat going to sleep                                22
- The Greater Horseshoe                                              23
- The Greater Horseshoe Bat hanging head downwards                   24
- Long-eared Bat                                                     25
- The Pipistrelle                                                    27
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES
- Toad's Spawn                                                       29
- Frog's Spawn floating on the water                                 31
- Frog's Spawn Quite Fresh                                           33
- Frog's Spawn showing Young Tadpoles, &c.                           34
- Frog's Spawn beginning to Grow                                     35
- Tadpoles getting like Frogs                                        36
- Tadpoles full grown                                                39
-
- A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO
- Passable                                                           43
- His Little Eyes were Starting from their Sockets                   47
- The Water Rat                                                      48
- The Salamander                                                     51
- The Natterjack                                                     52
- Have you Seen this Trick before                                    53
- The French Frog                                                    57
- "I see a Natterjack"                                               58
- "Fetch him," thundered the King Toad                               59
- Five Times He Tried                                                65
- The Shrew Mouse                                                    66
- He Bristled with Apologies                                         67
- The Green Toad                                                     69
- His Inside was Red Hot                                             70
- He Lay as He had Fallen                                            71
- "Ducks," whispered Bombinatrix                                     73
-
- ANIMALS' NESTS
- Four Moles' Nests Together                                         77
- The Squirrel                                                       79
- The Harvest Mouse Nest                                             81
- The Dormouse                                                       83
- A Dormouse's Nursery Nest                                          85
- The Harvest Mouse                                                  86
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES
- The Stag-Beetle                                                    91
- The Stag-Beetle that I ran over                                    93
- The Female Stag-Beetle                                             95
- The Great Water Beetle                                             96
- The Musk Beetle                                                    97
- The Cockchafer                                                     98
- The Churchyard Beetle                                              99
-
- BUNNY RABBIT
- Landed on his Back six feet below                                 103
- It wasn't Mother after all                                        105
- He Combed his Ears Out                                            106
- He Watched and Heard the Awakening of the Wood                    108
- Berus the Adder                                                   110
- Lay full length, eyes closed                                      113
- Bunny Rabbit Watched him out of Sight                             116
-
- A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX
- The Brimstone Butterfly                                           118
- The Red Admiral                                                   119
- The Purple Emperor                                                120
- The Clifden Blue                                                  121
- The Swallow Tail Butterfly                                        122
- The Black Pepper Moth                                             123
- The Silver-washed Fritillary                                      124
-
- TWO WONDERFUL WASPS
- Spinipes' burrow opened up                                        128
- Spinipes Bringing up a Grub                                       129
- Spinipes Grub Feeding                                             131
- Cocoon which Spinipes' Grubs make                                 132
- The Little Beetle that Caterpillars turn into                     133
- Before and After the Thunderstorm                                 135
- Crabro                                                            136
- Crabro Looking out of her hole                                    137
- How the Cocoons Looked                                            138
- One of the Crabro's Stores of Blue-Bottles                        139
- What the piece of Elm-bough looked like                           140
- One of the Cocoons of Crabro in Elm-bough                         141
-
- SPINIPES, THE SAND-WASP
- The Sand Cliff splits the Old Gravel-Pit in two                   144
- First the Wild Bees, Red King, Black Queen                        146
- Down Dropped a Red King                                           147
- "In Sand, Ma'am, in Sand"                                         148
- "Well, call me when it comes"                                     149
- Spinipes commenced to Dig in Earnest                              151
- "Good Hunting, Sister!" said the Ophion Fly                       153
- The Rose Chafer                                                   155
- Out flew the Bees                                                 157
- Hour after Hour she Toiled                                        158
- The Lowest Chamber of the Shaft now held a precious thing         159
- A Flabby, Green, Blackheaded Grub                                 160
- Twelve Grubs in all she brought                                   163
- She Sank five other Curving Shafts                                167
-
- PICTURES ON BUTTER-FLIES' WINGS
- The Magpie Moth                                                   171
- The Emperor Moth                                                  173
- The Elephant Hawk Moth's Caterpillar                              174
- The Elephant Hawk Moth showing his Trunk                          175
- The Peacock Butterfly                                             176
- The Mother Shipton Moth                                           177
-
- A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE
- The Common Shrewmouse                                             181
- The Water Shrewmouse                                              183
- The Pygmy Shrewmouse                                              184
- How the Pygmy Coils Himself Up to Sleep                           185
-
- IN WEASEL WOOD
- Again the Fox Cub was Puzzled                                     188
- He Sank from his Hindquarters forward                             191
- The Stoat Tiptoed Towards Him                                     193
- "My Plumed Tail! you wait till Squirrel grows"                    195
- Marten has seen you                                               197
- "Perhaps you will be good enough to get higher up the tree"       201
- It was another Badger                                             207
- She came out full charge                                          209
- And in due course of time, his wife                               210
-
- SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING
- The Lobster Moth Caterpillar                                      213
- The Spider on the Bramble Blossom                                 217
- The Dragon in the Water-weed                                      219
- The Lobster Moth Caterpillar, Angry                               220
- The Ichneumon Fly                                                 221
- The Puss Moth Caterpillar                                         223
- The Giant Wood Wasp                                               225
-
- THE BEASTIES' BEDTIME
- The Queen Wasp in her Winter Sleep                                227
- Bill the Lizard                                                   228
- Toadums                                                           229
- Round Eye the Dormouse                                            230
- Dormouse in his Winter Sleep                                      231
- Prickles the Hedge Pig                                            233
- The Hedge Pig in his Winter Sleep                                 234
- Lesser Horseshoe Bat Asleep                                       235
-
- THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMAEUS
- Bartimaeus                                                        237
- He Headed Straight for the Water                                  239
- The Bank Rose Steeply Over Him                                    241
- Only one grass-blade stirred, but Tatters saw it                  246
- The Harvest Mouse stood up full length                            251
- The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant                       253
- "Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse                                  254
- "Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind                           257
- His fortress, his own fortress had been breached                  258
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMAELEON
- You can see his eye looking back over his shoulder                263
- You can see his hands and feet                                    264
- The Chamaeleon                                                    267
-
- THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS
- Nuts Gnawed by Mice                                               269
- The Weasel's Trail                                                271
- Where the Weasel met the Mice                                     272
- Where the Weasel met the Rook                                     274
- Two Mouse Trails                                                  275
- The Fox's Footprints                                              276
-
- THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND
- She Never went to Sleep at all                                    281
- The Cricket was Sitting on the Hearthstone                        283
- The pair of them dropped                                          284
- "I beg your pardon," said the Grasshopper's Wife                  288
- The Mole Cricket                                                  291
- The Field Cricket                                                 292
- The Wood Cricket                                                  293
- The First Note sent the Grasshopper's Wife's hind legs
-   straight up                                                     295
- He had backed out of his hole                                     296
- The Grasshopper's Wife reared herself up                          297
-
- THE PYGMY SHREW
- The Woodmouse First                                               303
- He took the Right-hand Surface run                                305
- He could now see and hear as well                                 306
- His rival feinting, flicked his tail                              308
- The Grey Shrew Leant against the Trunk                            309
- With Tangled Tails and Rounded Straining Bodies                   310
- There they lay head to tail                                       311
- The Field Voles                                                   312
- The Bat came to a halt and stared                                 313
- The Pygmy climbed two inches up                                   314
- Now one was on his back, now the other                            315
- The Mole plunged into the air                                     317
-
-
-
-
-PUBLISHER'S NOTE
-
-
-The publisher may, perhaps, be allowed to call the reader's attention to
-the illustrations--particularly to the two of the Sand-Wasps, reproduced
-in colour. The difficulties of photographing from wild life active
-creatures of such small dimensions as hymenopterous insects are very
-great from an optical standpoint. The picture of Spinipes bringing the
-beetle grub to her tube took several years to accomplish successfully,
-and the strain involved by the conditions, a blazing June sun on the
-operator's back, an uncertain foothold, and the necessity of keeping the
-attention riveted for hours on one particular patch of sunlit sand, was
-exceptional. It is of course possible, probable even, that with the
-introduction of an improved lens system, which will enable fast
-exposures to be made at very short range on minute moving objects, this
-particular picture may be repeated and improved upon. But the odds
-against the second picture on the same page, that of Spinipes stinging
-the jewel-fly, _ever_ being repeated, are enormous. It will be necessary
-in order to secure the repetition of such a picture, first, that the
-camera shall be focussed on one out of a score of tubes; second, that
-the parasitic jewel-fly shall enter that particular tube; third, that
-the Owner Wasp shall return while the jewel-fly is below; fourth, that
-the Owner Wasp shall pull the jewel-fly to the surface; fifth, that the
-jewel-fly shall cling to the rim of the tube; sixth, that the Wasp shall
-sting it in this position--it will be noticed that the sting is directed
-at the junction of the thorax and abdomen; seventh, that the observer
-shall be ready to expose his plate at the exact psychological moment;
-and eighth, that he shall succeed in doing so. The first six conditions
-were, in Mr. English's case, fulfilled by chance. As regards the seventh
-he was unready. He was, in fact, some feet below his camera. But chance
-befriended him still further.
-
-He caught the jewel-fly's glint, and caught the shadow of the returning
-Wasp. He flung his arm up, grabbed the dangling bulb, and pressed at
-random. This action dragged the camera from its moorings--to fix a
-camera on a Sand Cliff's side is no slight task--and it fell twelve feet
-down. Yet it had done its work and made the picture.
-
-There are a score of pictures in this book, which are believed to be
-unique, not only by reason of the rarity of their subjects, but also by
-reason of the fact that they are the _only_ pictures of such subjects,
-good or bad, in existence. The most remarkable among them is the picture
-of Spinipes stinging the jewel-fly.
-
-
-
-
-INTRODUCTION
-
-
-I know a Boy Scout who has never seen a weasel. Many weasels, I fancy,
-must have seen that Boy Scout.
-
-And I know a Girl who has never seen a Harvest Mouse, but who might
-have, often.
-
-There may be other boys and girls like these. There may be grown-ups
-also.
-
-It is for them that I have written this book. It is to them that I offer
-its pictures.
-
-I would lead them (with hushed voices and quiet feet) into God's
-Under-World; a World of queer small happenings; of sparkling eyes and
-vanishing tails; a whispering, rustling World.
-
-I would have them, whatever their age be, approach this World as
-children. For children's eyes are closest to the ground.
-
- DOUGLAS ENGLISH
- HAWLEY, DARTFORD, 1910
-
-
-
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT BATS
- (JANUARY)
-
-
- [Illustration: NATTERER'S BAT
- The best-looking Bat in Britain]
-
-You must all, I think, have seen Bats flying, or, at any rate, pictures
-of Bats flying, and you must all know that they are night, or twilight,
-beasties, though some of our English kinds fly about in broad daylight
-more often than most people think. But do you all know that they are the
-only four-footed creatures that _really_ fly--for they are four-footed
-though they don't look it; and do you all know that there are, probably,
-more different kinds of Bats in England than there are different kinds
-of any other beastie; and that they are the very ugliest of British
-Beasties, taking them altogether; and that they all have very small
-eyes--which is a queer thing for twilight beasties to have; owls, of
-course, and dormice have very big eyes--and that they have either very
-wonderful ears, or very wonderful noses, but not both together? If you
-don't know all this, perhaps you would like to hear more.
-
- [Illustration: THE LESSER HORSESHOE BAT
- You can see his nose-leaf, shaped like a horseshoe, very
- well in this picture. Both the Greater and Lesser Horseshoe
- Bats are wonderfully neat fliers]
-
-We had better, I think, begin with a Bat's wings, for, when we have
-learnt something about these, we may perhaps get some notion as to why a
-Bat is more clever in the air than a bird, and far, far more clever than
-a flying machine, worked by a human brain, is at present. The reason why
-a Bat is a cleverer, I don't mean a stronger, flier than a bird, is a
-reason which you young people will find to be a very common one, if ever
-you try your hand at guessing Mother Nature's riddles. It is simply
-this--that _he has to be_. A Bat has to catch his food, tiny food
-mostly, in the air, and he has to catch it in a bad light, and, as far
-as we can tell, though we cannot be sure of this, his eyesight is not as
-good as, say, a swallow's eyesight. This means that he has had to pick
-up a wonderful quickness in checking his own flight, and in turning
-sharp in the air, almost head over heels sometimes, and in diving, and
-in soaring up again. To do all these things well he has had to be built
-in a very special way, and I will try to explain to you how he has been
-built by comparing a Bat with one of ourselves, for you must remember
-that a Bat belongs to the same great order of living creatures as we do,
-and that a Bat is much more like a human being than a bird is.
-
- [Illustration: THE NOCTULE
- You can see one earlet quite plainly, and his eye "starting
- out of his head"]
-
-Let us fancy, then, a small boy being turned into a Bat. The first thing
-that would have to happen would be that his legs would have to be bent
-at the knees, and shrunk until they were as thin as sticks. Then they
-would have to be twisted right and left until the knee-caps faced the
-wrong way about. His arms would have to be shrunk too, and his fore-arms
-would have to be stretched until they were twice their natural length,
-and his middle-fingers would have to be about a yard long, and his other
-fingers nearly a yard long also. His thumb might be left as it was, but
-it would have to have a strong claw at the end of it. In between his
-fingers, and joining his arms to his body, and stretching down to his
-legs, and joining his legs together, there would have to be a web of
-skin, and then, perhaps, if his chest was brought well forward like a
-pigeon's, and his head pressed well back until it stopped between his
-shoulders, he might, if his muscles were strong enough, and the whole of
-him was light enough, be able to fly.
-
- [Illustration: THE NOCTULE
- One of our largest Bats. He is sometimes more than a foot
- across the wings, and his brown fur is as velvety as a
- Mole's--when he feels quite well]
-
- [Illustration: LESSER HORSESHOE BAT
- He is hanging head downwards, and beginning to wrap himself
- up in his wings before going to sleep]
-
-Now about a Bat's eyes. I have already told you that these are very
-small--at least they look very small in our English Bats--and that it
-does not seem likely that Bats possess the wonderful eyesight, which one
-would expect them to have. In some cases the eyes are so curiously
-placed in the head that the Bat can hardly be able to see straight in
-front of him at all. In the Leaf-nosed Bats, for instance, you can only
-just see the Bat's eyes when you look at him full face, because his
-leaf-nose all but hides them--you can see what I mean from the
-pictures--and in the case of one rare little bat, the Barbastelle, the
-eyes are set so far back that part of the ear comes round them like a
-horse's blinkers; and one can hardly imagine his being able to see much
-sideways, even if he can see quite well in front. There is just one
-little thing, however, which I have noticed in a large Bat called the
-Noctule, and this may mean that Bats have better eyesight than one would
-at first suppose. The Noctule can make his own eyes "start out of his
-head," until they seem to be almost twice as large as usual. If all Bats
-can do this it is quite likely that very few people have seen their eyes
-properly at all; that is, have seen them as they really appear, when the
-Bats are chasing moths in the twilight.
-
- [Illustration: THE GREATER HORSESHOE--A PIG THAT _DOES_ FLY]
-
- [Illustration: THE GREATER HORSESHOE BAT
- Hanging head downwards. Except when he is flying he always
- carries his tail cocked up over his back, as you see it.]
-
- [Illustration: THE LONG-EARED BAT
- His ears are more than twice as long as his head, and
- beautifully pink and transparent when seen in the right
- light]
-
-I think I will leave the pictures to show you the ugliness of Bats
-generally, though I have purposely put one picture in to show you that
-all Bats are not ugly--for I am sure you will agree with me that the
-little white-fronted Natterer's Bat, has quite a pretty face. I must
-tell you a little more, though, about Bats' ears and noses.
-
-When we were turning, in imagination, our small boy into a Bat, we did
-not trouble ourselves about his ears and nose, but we ought to have done
-so, for there are some very wonderful differences between Bats' ears and
-noses, and the ears and noses of human beings. If you will look at
-anybody's ear carefully you will see that in front of, and just a little
-below the ear-hole, there is a small lump of flesh which points
-backwards across the opening. It is not much to look at in a human
-being, and does not seem to serve any particular purpose, but in many
-Bats it is evidently very important, for it is quite large and takes all
-sorts of curious shapes. It is called the "earlet." Sometimes it is
-pointed, sometimes square, and sometimes rounded. Sometimes it is long
-and thin and tapering like a dagger, and sometimes it is short and thick
-and blunted like a kidney-bean. You will see several of its different
-shapes in the pictures, and you will also see that the leaf-nosed Bats,
-who have such queer ornaments on their noses, do not have it all. Now
-some wise folk think that the ornament on the face of a leaf-nosed Bat,
-which makes him appear so very ugly to our ideas (though I have no doubt
-his wife thinks it very beautiful) may give him a kind of sixth sense
-which is neither seeing, nor smelling, nor hearing, nor feeling, nor
-tasting: a sense, that is, like that which blind people often seem to
-possess and which helps them, poor souls, through their world of
-darkness. If this is so (but you must remember that we can only guess
-about it), it may be that the earlets of Bats do much the same, and
-that, therefore, Bats with earlets have no need of leaf-noses, and Bats
-with leaf-noses have no need of earlets.
-
- [Illustration: THE PIPISTRILLE
- A small Bat and one of the commonest]
-
-
-
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES
- (FEBRUARY)
-
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS TOAD'S SPAWN, WHICH IS LAID IN "ROPES"]
-
-How many of you can tell me the difference between a frog-tadpole and a
-toad-tadpole? I don't mean when they are so small that it seems a
-kindness to call them tadpoles at all, but when they are quite a good
-size, with great fat heads and shiny little eyes and squiggly little
-tails. And how many of you can tell me the number of different kinds of
-tadpoles which one can find in England in the springtime? Most of you, I
-am sure, know a tadpole when you see one (sometimes he is called
-"pot-ladle,"or "polly-wog," or "horse-nail,") and some of you may know
-that a fat frog-tadpole is brown with little specks of gold, while a fat
-toad-tadpole is black all over; but I don't expect many of you know that
-there are two kinds of frog-tadpole, and two kinds of toad-tadpole, and
-three kinds of newt-tadpole, to be met with in England, which makes
-seven kinds of tadpoles in all.
-
-Now as these seven little tadpoles are all different from one another
-(though the two frog-tadpoles and the two toad-tadpoles are not _very_
-different), we may be quite sure that they grow up into seven different
-little beasties. I am going to tell you something about the frog- and
-toad-tadpoles now and leave the newt-tadpoles for another time, for it
-will be easier for you if you don't have too much to remember at once.
-
-If you go into the country in springtime (the middle of March is the
-best time where I live, but in other places it may be a little earlier
-or a little later) and find a pond, or a brook which runs quite slowly,
-or even a hole in swampy ground which has water in it, you are almost
-sure to see a lump of stuff which looks like dirty grey jelly, either
-close to the bank or on the top of some of the weeds.
-
-If you pick up a little of this, you will find (perhaps before it has
-slipped out of your fingers and perhaps after) that it is full of round
-black eggs.
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS FROG'S SPAWN FLOATING ON THE WATER]
-
-The grey jelly is either frog's spawn or toad's spawn.
-
-If it is just a lump with no particular shape to it, it is frog's spawn,
-but if it is made up of small slimy ropes, which come apart from one
-another, and in which the eggs lie in rows like strings of black beads,
-it is toad's spawn. When you find toad's spawn, you may be sure that
-frog's spawn has been about for some time, for frog's spawn is always to
-be found rather earlier in the year. Whichever it may be you should take
-a little of it (quite a little is best) and put it in a glass jam-jar
-half full of water, and stand this in some bright, warm place, where it
-will not get knocked over, and where the sun will not shine directly on
-to it.
-
-Frogs and toads usually lay their eggs in places where the sun _does_
-shine on them and warms them gently, and so hatches them out, but of
-course they do not lay them in glass bottles, and if the sun shines on
-these, the water will get warmer than is good for them, partly because
-there is no other water round to keep it cool, and partly because the
-bottle acts as a kind of burning-glass, and brings too much of the
-sunshine into itself, and so gives too much warmth to the eggs.
-
-Some people think the jelly of frog's or toad's spawn acts like a
-burning-glass too; this, however, is a burning-glass which Mother Nature
-has arranged, and so there is no fear of its not acting properly.
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS FROG'S SPAWN WHEN IT IS QUITE FRESH]
-
-If you find frog's or toad's spawn soon after it is laid, you will see
-only a small quantity of jelly round it, but this soon swells out and
-gets much bigger.
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS FROG'S SPAWN, TOO
- But I have photographed it with a microscope, so that you
- may see it a little bigger than it really is. Right in the
- middle is a Tadpole who has grown his feathery gills, and
- close to him is one like a little alderman. There is
- another Tadpole with gills towards the right hand bottom
- corner, but there is an egg behind which makes his shape
- wrong. All the round things are eggs and the long things
- are Tadpoles which have just hatched]
-
- [Illustration: FROG'S SPAWN
- The Little Curly Tails are beginning to Grow]
-
-Have you ever seen Cook make a jelly? The first thing she does is to
-soak the gelatine in water, so that it gets soft and swells to twice the
-size it was before. It swells because it takes up water inside it, and
-frog's spawn does just the same. Now we must try and think what the
-frog's spawn jelly is for. It is really the white of the eggs, the black
-beads being the yolk. You wouldn't understand all its uses, but one is
-that it makes the frog's spawn much more difficult to eat, because it is
-so slippery. A great many water birds are very fond of frog's spawn and
-would gobble it up very quickly if they had a good, big spoon, instead
-of a rather small bill. As it is, a great deal of frog's spawn and a
-good many tadpoles are eaten up one way or another, which is really
-rather lucky for us, for frogs and toads lay millions and millions of
-eggs, and, if they all hatched out, there wouldn't be room in the world
-for all little frogs and toads.
-
- [Illustration: THE TADPOLES ARE HERE SEEN GETTING VERY LIKE FROGS
- Most of them have all four legs, but one has only his hind
- legs at present]
-
-Well, if you keep your glass bottle with the eggs in it in a good place
-and look at it every day, you will find something fresh to interest you
-every day. First the black yolks will grow larger and change their shape
-so that they seem longer than they are broad, and presently you will
-find that they are turning into tadpoles. The baby tadpole seems much
-too fat to begin with, and sticks out in front like a little alderman;
-but soon he gets slimmer again, and you find that he is growing a curly
-tail (which no alderman ever did), and that there are tiny markings
-where his eyes and mouth are going to be. He is still very small (about
-a quarter of an inch long), but before he is much bigger a very
-wonderful thing happens--it has been happening all the time, though you
-have not been able to see it--he grows a pair of gills like a fish. They
-are delicate, feathery things, and stand out on either side of his head,
-I should like to say "neck," but I do not think I ought to because frogs
-and toads have no necks at all, and so I suppose tadpoles have none
-either. All this time his tail is growing too, and presently it is long
-enough for him to swim with. When this happens he slips out of the jelly
-and wriggles about in the water. At present he has no real mouth, but he
-has a little opening, shaped like a horseshoe, near to where his mouth
-is going to be, and he uses this to hold on to weeds when he is tired,
-which he very soon is at first.
-
-Once he is fairly hatched, however, his mouth grows quickly and he gets
-a pair of rather hard little jaws with which he can nibble the
-water-weed. When this happens you must, of course, put some water-weed
-into the bottle, though grass will do if you can't get anything else.
-
- [Illustration: TADPOLES FULL GROWN
- They are covered with little specks of gold. At the bottom
- one can be seen feeding]
-
-I told you that he had gills like a fish, but they are curious gills at
-this early stage because they have no flap of skin to protect them. If
-you want to see a fish's gills you must lift up the hard flap of skin
-which covers them. The tadpole soon grows a flap of skin, though, just
-like a fish, and this always appears first on the right side, so that at
-one stage he looks as if he had only one gill, the one on the left side.
-When both the flaps of skin have grown, the tadpole is really a little
-fish, and he stays in much the same shape, though he gets fatter and
-fatter, for about a month. At the end of this time he begins to grow
-legs, first the hind ones and then the front ones (newt-tadpoles grow
-the front ones first); but, in spite of his legs, he is still only a
-fish, because, instead of breathing the air with his lungs as a grown-up
-frog does, he breathes the water with his gills. During the next month,
-when he is getting on for three months old, another wonderful change
-comes over him. For a time he breathes both with his lungs (he has to
-put his head out of water for this) and with his gills, and so he is
-both a frog and a fish at once; but he gets more and more like a frog,
-and less and less like a fish. His lungs keep growing inside him, and
-his body and gills and tail get smaller and smaller, and his mouth and
-his eyes and his legs get larger and larger, and presently he leaves the
-water altogether, for he is tired of water-weeds and tired of his tail
-(he can swim beautifully without it), and he wants to make his meals off
-insects and slugs, and to learn how to croak and jump, and to be a great
-fat frog like Mother.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO!
- (VALENTINE'S DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"This is better," gasped Bombinator.
-
-Bombinatrix eyed him anxiously.
-
-Only his waistcoat touched the ground. His eyes and nose had vanished.
-The right of either foot was now the left; the left of either hand was
-now the right; his head, subverted, curled to touch his toes, and, in
-his back, was a deep hollow.
-
-This sounds involved, and that is just what Bombinator was.
-
-"It's awful," said Bombinatrix.
-
-"What do I look like?" spluttered Bombinator. "It's awkward talking to
-your feet."
-
-"You're like--you're like a toadstool," said Bombinatrix, "a crinkled,
-gummy, yellow-spotted toadstool."
-
-"That's the idea," said Bombinator, as he snapped back to shapeliness.
-"Now you try," and Bombinatrix tried.
-
-"Passable," said Bombinator, "but not sufficient curl."
-
-"It cricks my neck," she answered. Her head was slowly drooping.
-
-"You _must_ keep rigid," said Bombinator. "I can't see half the yellow.
-Throw back your head."
-
-Bombinatrix threw back her head, until it grazed her toe-tips. Then she
-unstrung herself.
-
-(I see you look incredulous. You ask and ask with reason: How came two
-fire-toads in an English garden? To this I answer frankly--I put them
-there myself.)
-
-Even a fire-toad loves his liberty, though prison-life may have its
-compensations. The breakfast gong, for instance, two taps upon the
-glass. The sluggish fatted meal-worm, the feeling of full-fed security.
-
-Nor had there been a lack of company.
-
-The Natterjack had livened things--by running races with his own
-reflection. So had the mottled Green Toad, an alien like themselves; so,
-in his own quiet way, the Salamander.
-
- [Illustration: "PASSABLE," SAID BOMBINATOR, "BUT NOT
- SUFFICIENT CURL"]
-
-Each welcomed freedom differently.
-
-The Natterjack went straight into the pond (quite the wrong thing for
-him), and swam with short-legged jerky sweeps up to the water-lilies.
-There he met the Water-Rat, of whom more later. The Green Toad sought
-the nearest tuft of grass, and, scratching with his fore-feet at the
-roots, contrived a roomy burrow. He backed inside and sat there quite
-content, blinking his emerald eyes. The Salamander stayed where he was
-put--and smiled.
-
-The fire-toads climbed upon a stone and practised squiggles--aposematic
-squiggles.
-
-That resonant epithet comes, I think, from Oxford. It means, _you dare
-to touch me and you'll catch it_, or words to that effect. "Apo," get
-out, and "sema," a sign. It is quite simple, really. Yet its
-significance (in toads) may need explaining, and, to be master of the
-sense of it, you must remember that fire-toads, though dusky olive green
-above, are orange red beneath. A patch of orange underneath each hand, a
-patch of orange underneath each foot, an orange patchwork waistcoat.
-
-Now orange is a poison-label. It means in wild-folk speech, "Be
-careful," and yellow means the same; and when black joins the scheme, it
-means, "Be very careful, here is poison."
-
-Sometimes the colour flaunts itself--witness the salamander, or the
-wasp. Sometimes it is concealed, witness the fire-toad. But fire-toads
-have the knack of showing it. Drop one upon his back and there he stays,
-knowing the underpart of him is fearsome. Startle one as he sits at
-ease, and he will flick into a knot, crinkly, immovable, unreal, with
-screaming labels at each corner. To be adept at this, the fire-toad
-needs spare living, one meal, at most two meals a day. When corpulent he
-finds the bend beyond him.
-
-But corpulence is transient in toads. The first to find a waist was
-Bombinator, and Bombinatrix quickly followed. They now could travel with
-less apprehension. They made five equal hops and stopped. Before them
-stretched the pond, green-carpeted, a mirror-patch of water here and
-there, balsam and iris on the fringe of it, and fronting them, upon his
-leaf, the Rat.
-
-The Natterjack had left him, and was swimming landwards. His head bobbed
-with each stroke, and he was slow in coming.
-
-"The surliest brute I ever met," he said.
-
-"The Rat?" said Bombinator.
-
-"The Rat," replied the Natterjack. "He grumbled at my ripples in the
-water--and _he_ makes noise enough. Just listen to him."
-
-The Water-Rat had left his leaf, and now was in the reed-stems. He held
-a two-inch cutting in his paws. They heard his munching plainly.
-
-"This is a queer pond," said the Natterjack; "it's full of noises. A
-shrew-mouse chirped as I swam back, and half a dozen bubbles struck me.
-That means there's something grunting. My yellow stripe! what's that?"
-
-It rose _crescendo_,
-
-"_brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!_"
-
-and finished _amoroso_,
-
-"_KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_"
-
-"I know it," shrieked Bombinator. His little eyes were starting from
-their sockets, as he sat up entranced.
-
-"I know it," echoed Bombinatrix.
-
-"Then you might share your knowledge," snapped the Natterjack. Jealousy
-had convulsed him, for he too can sing.
-
-"A French Frog," cried Bombinator.
-
-"A French Frog," echoed Bombinatrix, and in a rattle came the southern
-notes:
-
-"_brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!_"
-
-"_KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_"
-
-"I'll find him, if I hop all night," said Bombinator.
-
-He plunged aside into the grass, and Bombinatrix followed at his heels.
-
-The Natterjack soon caught them. He ran with little mouse-steps.
-
- [Illustration: HIS LITTLE EYES WERE STARTING FROM THEIR
- SOCKETS AS HE SAT UP ENTRANCED]
-
-"Are you quite prudent?" he jerked out.
-
-"Prudent?" said Bombinator, "why, he's a countryman."
-
-So all three went together, and dropped abreast into the Green Toad's
-burrow.
-
-"Have you heard him?" said Bombinator.
-
-The Green Toad was half dozing.
-
-"Heard what?" he muttered sleepily.
-
-"The French Frog," said Bombinator. "Come out and listen."
-
-They pulled him out between them.
-
- [Illustration: THE WATER-RAT HAD LEFT HIS LEAF AND NOW WAS
- IN THE REED-STEMS. HE HELD A TWO-INCH CUTTING IN HIS PAWS.
- THEY HEARD HIS MUNCHING PLAINLY]
-
-The Green Toad slowly stretched himself.
-
-"_That?_" said he, "that's not French." Then he relapsed to sleep again.
-
-"What did I tell you?" said the Natterjack.
-
-"You told us nothing," said Bombinator. "Let's ask the Salamander."
-
-The Salamander had not moved an inch.
-
-"Is that song French?" the Natterjack inquired.
-
-The Salamander slowly raised his head, curled S-wise out and home again,
-blinked either eye three times, smiled fatuously at each toad in turn,
-and then smiled at the sky.
-
-"Oh, come on!" said the Natterjack. The Natterjack is all on wires, and
-Salamanders madden him.
-
-"_brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!_"
-
-"_KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_"
-
-The Natterjack now led them, faster and faster as the song grew louder,
-hippy-hoppy, hurry-scurry, bumping against the snails and spiders,
-starting the flies and beetles, and rousing every sleeper in the grass.
-
-Small wonder that they soon encountered trouble.
-
-They wakened the King Toad.
-
-Since you last knew him, the King Toad has grown. His waist is fourteen
-inches. His mouth could welcome three small toads abreast.
-
-The fire-toads crouched in front of him (the mouth seemed very wide);
-even the Natterjack hung back, and waited to be spoken to.
-
-Ten minutes passed, and then the King Toad spoke, in slow,
-imperial-measured tones.
-
-"Who are you?" said he, and fixed his royal eye on Bombinator.
-
-Bombinator's mouth was flattened to the ground, and his reply was
-indistinct.
-
-"Speak louder," said the King Toad.
-
-But Bombinator kept his head. If he spoke louder he must move, and, if
-he moved, he might be swallowed.
-
-Once more he muttered with closed lips.
-
-The King Toad slowly raised one foot. Before it reached the ground again
-the Natterjack had vanished. So had the fire-toads, but in different
-fashion. Where they had been were now two spotted toadstools.
-
-"That's a queer trick," said the King meditatively. "Orange underneath I
-see. Risky to eat without inquiries. Come back, Natterjack."
-
- [Illustration: THE SALAMANDER HAD NOT MOVED AN INCH]
-
-Two yellow eyes were peeping round a dock-leaf. The Natterjack slouched
-low in the Presence.
-
-"Have you seen this trick before?" said the King Toad coldly.
-
-"I have, Sire," said the Natterjack.
-
-"Do it yourself," said the King Toad.
-
-"Alas, Sire," said the Natterjack, "I am too stout."
-
-"Not a bad fault," said the King more graciously, "not a bad fault. What
-is the meaning of it?"
-
-"It means, Sire, that my two small friends are frightened."
-
-"Frightened?" said the King Toad; "frightened of what?"
-
-"Of you, Sire."
-
- [Illustration: THE NATTERJACK SLOUCHED LOW INTO THE PRESENCE]
-
-"Of me?" said the King Toad. "Why should a toad fear me? I am the
-Protector of all toads." He swelled himself imperially.
-
- [Illustration: "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS TRICK BEFORE?" SAID
- THE KING TOAD]
-
-"These are strange toads, Sire," said the Natterjack, "they come from
-France."
-
-"France?" said the King; "this must be looked to. The place is being
-overrun with aliens. Undo them, Natterjack."
-
-The Natterjack looked pained.
-
-"Sire," he gasped out, "they're poisonous. I bit one once, and could not
-sing for days."
-
-"Could not sing for days?" said the King. "Could not sing for days?" The
-shadow of a smile played round his mouth.
-
-"Just fetch me that French Frog," he said.
-
-"Sire," said the Natterjack, "it was during our unsuccessful search for
-him that we had the felicity of being so graciously received by your
-Majesty."
-
-"You know him then," said the King, frowning.
-
-"The fire-toads know his song, Sire. At least they said he was a
-countryman."
-
-"They shall be made better acquainted," said the King, "much better
-acquainted. You will find the French Frog by the water's edge, beneath
-the furze-bush. You may go."
-
-The Natterjack went scudding like a mouse.
-
-He started in the wrong direction, but chance befriended him. Climbing
-upon a clump of moss, he opened out the circuit of the pond. The
-furze-bush stood on the far side of it. Its lower branches jutted from
-the bank, and, arching downwards, trailed into the water. From the first
-dip of them spread dancing waves.
-
-The French Frog still was singing, and each note, caught and re-echoed
-overhead, crept down the boughs and rippled to the shore.
-
-So far so good. His goal was plainly visible. But how to get there? He
-made a bee-line for the water's edge, and tumbled down the bank.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-His first idea, to swim, was soon abandoned.
-
-With no clear mark by which to set his course he might swim on till
-nightfall. But if he crept along close to the water? This seemed a
-certainty, so off he started.
-
-It was uneven going. Sometimes a stretch of sticky mud, sometimes the
-mazy reed-stems, and sometimes, where the bank was hollowed out, deep
-water.
-
-The Natterjack was nimble on his feet, and scuttling, crawling,
-swimming, made good progress. Before he paused, the furze-bush rose
-above him. Once in the shade of this, he moved discreetly. He slid from
-stone to stone, and at each stone he rose to reconnoitre. At the fifth
-stone, a bulky slanting one, he sighted the French Frog. The French Frog
-sat absorbed in his own harmonies, his mouthpiece taut, to right and
-left of it two filmy bubble spheres, now swelling now collapsing.
-
-"_brek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-ek-EX!_"
-
-"_KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_ _KO-ax!_"
-
-It sounded like a challenge.
-
-The last notes struck the listener squarely. He too could sing. Had he
-not sung against the wood-pecker, yaffle for yaffle, note for note? He
-swelled himself to bursting point, shut both his eyes, strained to their
-uttermost the voice-chords underneath his tongue, and loosed one mighty
-"Yaup!" It cut the last "_Ko-ax_" in half, and as its rattle spent
-itself, he looked to see what came of it. He looked in vain. The French
-Frog was not there.
-
-The Natterjack at first was jubilant (a signal victory this) but quiet
-reflection sobered him.
-
-His mission was to bring the French Frog with him. Now there was no
-French Frog to bring. He searched five yards each way, then gloomily
-retraced his steps.
-
- [Illustration: THE FRENCH FROG SAT ABSORBED IN HIS OWN
- HARMONIES, HIS MOUTHPIECE TAUT, TO RIGHT AND LEFT OF IT,
- TWO FILMY BUBBLE SPHERES, NOW SWELLING, NOW COLLAPSING]
-
-He found the King Toad sleeping, and pausing at a prudent range, croaked
-nervously.
-
-The King Toad made no sign.
-
-He croaked again, and louder.
-
-The King Toad moved uneasily. His eyebrows twitched, and one eye half
-revealed itself. Upper and under lids stayed fast, but, in their
-crescent interval, a third lid fluttered, a filmy, shadowy, cobweb
-thing, which brushed aside the dream-mists.
-
- [Illustration: "I SEE A NATTERJACK," HE SAID, "A
- STARVELING, MOUSE LEGGED NATTERJACK. I SENT FOR A FRENCH
- FROG"]
-
-So in due order, decorously, to open round-eyed vision. The Natterjack
-was palpably distressed.
-
-His mouth drooped dismally; he shuffled each squat foot in turn.
-
-At last the King Toad spoke.
-
-"I see a Natterjack," he said, "a starveling, mouse-legged Natterjack. I
-sent for a French Frog."
-
-"Sire," said the Natterjack, his voice a-quiver, "I f-found him, but he
-v-vanished."
-
-"Fetch him," thundered the King Toad.
-
-The Natterjack fled headlong.
-
-"I shall have to find him," he muttered to himself.
-
-He stumbled on the Salamander. The Salamander, after working for an
-hour, had partially concealed himself. His smiling face alone was
-visible, framed by the grass-stems.
-
-"Have--you--seen--the--French--Frog?" said the Natterjack, as loudly and
-as plainly as he could.
-
- [Illustration: "FETCH HIM," THUNDERED THE KING TOAD.
- THE NATTERJACK FLED HEADLONG]
-
-The Salamander turned his face away and smiled across his shoulder.
-
-"Have--you--seen--the--French--Frog?" the Natterjack repeated.
-
-The Salamander's face came slowly round again, still smiling. It was too
-much; no longer could the Natterjack contain himself. He ducked his head
-and pranced, his legs flung round him anyhow.
-
-So for a mad five minutes; at last he got his answer, suave tones across
-the intervening grass: "Have I seen what?"
-
-The Natterjack plunged straight into the pond. His nerves were
-over-wrought, his heart was racing. But for this cooling dive he must
-have burst. He rose among the lily leaves, and, clutching one, hung
-slantwise. Slowly the madness left him.
-
-Then he commenced to paddle circumspectly.
-
- [Illustration: The Green Toad slowly stretched himself.
- "THAT?" said he, "that's not French."]
-
- [Illustration: At the fifth stone--a bulky slanting one, he
- sighted the French Frog.]
-
-He steered a zig-zag course, and, scanning every leaf in turn, came to
-the outskirts of the cluster. Here he sank slowly down, until his nose
-alone was visible. The leaf on his right hand was moving. A ripple ran
-the length of it; then, close beside its stalk, appeared a snout, a
-quivering trembling snout; then two bead eyes; then a trim velvet body.
-The Natterjack brought up his head again. No danger here, only a water
-Shrew-mouse. The Shrew-mouse took no heed of him. She swam the circuit
-of her leaf three times, dived once or twice, then climbed upon its
-surface. Here she performed her toilet. The goggle-eyes in no way
-disconcerted her. At length the Natterjack found words:
-
-"Can you tell me," he said, politely, "where the French Frog has got to?"
-
-The Shrew-mouse gave a little jump. She had been combing out her tail,
-which was important.
-
-"The French Frog?" she said; "the French Frog? I'm sick of the French
-Frog. What between him and the Water Rat--and the queer thing is that
-neither of them seems to know that the other----"
-
-"Of course, he's very fond of me," she added. "Every day he sings _at_
-me, and so, of course, when he comes my way, I have to _ask_ him to
-sing; and the worst of it is, when I _ask_ him to sing, he _does_ sing."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"I think that might be cured," said the Natterjack, "if you can tell me
-where he is."
-
-"Where did you see him last?" said the Shrew-mouse.
-
-"Under the furze-bush," said the Natterjack.
-
-"Under the furze-bush?" echoed the Shrew-mouse; "perhaps then I can find
-him. Swim behind me."
-
-She slid so neatly off her leaf that not a drop of water reached her
-back. Then she commenced to paddle, her feet alternate, her square tail
-trailing, her nose and face awash. Twin ripples spread on either side of
-her, and, in between them, though their distance widened, the Natterjack
-swam stoutly, using his squat hind-legs alone, short jerky thrusts of
-them, and losing at each stroke.
-
-He reached the shore two yards behind, but yet in time to see the last
-of her, a fluttering wavy tail-tip, which skimmed the summit of a stone
-and disappeared behind it.
-
-This was disheartening. The Natterjack had spent his strength, and quick
-pursuit was out of question. He paused and stretched each limb in turn,
-scratched his chin doubtfully, and looked about him. He looked first at
-the water, then at the stone to fix it in his memory, and lastly at the
-bank above. Here his eyes rested, expressionless at first,
-lack-lustrous, but presently, with quickened interest, sparkling.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-It must be, yes it was, the self-same furze-bush. He stared intently. It
-was the self-same stone. Perhaps the French Frog still was close at
-hand; perhaps the Shrew-mouse knew his hiding-place.
-
-He flung his tiredness off him, and started running jauntily.
-
-He had not far to go. Two scurries brought him to the stone, two
-scrambles to its summit.
-
-There was the Shrew-mouse just below.
-
-She was too occupied to note his coming. She coursed along the water's
-edge, her head dropped low, her face almost submerged. At times she
-paused and sniffed the air, her nose upturned and crinkly, her bristles
-fan-shape. Then she would drop her head again and probe the water.
-
-The Natterjack watched quietly for a while, but soon impatience mastered
-him. He crept down and addressed her timidly.
-
-"You said you might find the French Frog," he began.
-
-"I have found him," said the Shrew-mouse; "he's down there--as usual."
-
-"Down where?" said the Natterjack.
-
-"Down in the water," said the Shrew-mouse, "down at the bottom of this
-pool, a good foot down."
-
-"Would you mind asking him to come up?" said the Natterjack.
-
-"I've asked him for five minutes," said the Shrew-mouse. "He must be
-fast asleep. I know he's there; I've seen his bubbles."
-
-"How can we wake him?" said the Natterjack.
-
-"You'd better dive," said the Shrew-mouse.
-
-Now Natterjacks are bad enough at swimming; at diving they are hopeless.
-
-"In you go," said the Shrew-mouse.
-
-For very shame the Natterjack went in.
-
-He swam to what he judged a likely spot, ducked down his head, his hands
-pressed tight against it, and lunged with both hind-legs. These,
-splashing on the surface, urged him on, but not one inch below.
-
-Five times he tried, and five times his fat body, when half submerged,
-shot up and bobbed afloat.
-
- [Illustration: FIVE TIMES HE TRIED, AND FIVE TIMES HIS
- FAT BODY, WHEN HALF SUBMERGED, SHOT UP AND BOBBED
- AFLOAT]
-
-The Shrew-mouse rocked with laughter.
-
-"Again, Natterjack!" she cried. "Again! again!"
-
-Shame-faced, he paddled back to shore.
-
-"Be charitable, Shrew-mouse, be charitable. I did my best."
-
-The Shrew-mouse looked at him inquiringly. "Never mind, Natterjack," she
-said, "I'll fetch him. It's hardly the right thing to do, but still----"
-
- [Illustration: THE SHREW-MOUSE DREW ALL FOUR FEET
- TOGETHER AND SLITHERED EEL-WISE OFF THE LEDGE]
-
-She climbed a ledge, drew all four feet together, and slithered off it
-eel-wise. She swam a yard and dived. The water closed like oil upon her
-going. Ten seconds passed and then she reappeared.
-
-"He's coming, Natterjack," she said, and landed close beside him. The
-French Frog shot up like a cork, and half of him splashed clear above
-the surface. He took two strokes to reach the shore, and came out moist
-and shiny. He bristled with apologies--"It was unpardonable. He was
-altogether desolated. That a lady should have had to dive for him. Alas!
-he had been dreaming, and his dream, like all his dreams----"
-
- [Illustration: HE BRISTLED WITH APOLOGIES]
-
-The Shrew-mouse cut him short.
-
-"The King Toad has heard your singing," she said, "and has commanded your
-presence. The Natterjack will guide you."
-
-Ambition strove with gallantry, and, for a time, the French Frog wavered.
-
-"And have I your permission, Shrew-mouse?" he said, at last.
-
-"Please go," said she, "then come and tell me all about it." So both
-departed. The Shrew-mouse watched them out of sight, then swam to open
-water. She wished the Rat to see her next.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Sire," said the Natterjack, "it is my privilege to inform you that I
-have been successful."
-
-The King Toad made no answer. His eyes turned from the Natterjack to his
-companion, and, after an appropriate pause, he signed with one fore-foot.
-
-The French Frog tiptoed forward.
-
-"I have heard your singing," said the King Toad, "and your singing has
-annoyed me intensely."
-
-There was a queer strained silence.
-
-The Natterjack turned to conceal his face, and saw the Green Toad
-perched above him. He too was struggling to keep countenance. Beside him
-was the Salamander, wreathed in smiles.
-
- [Illustration: THE GREEN TOAD, TOO, WAS STRUGGLING TO
- KEEP COUNTENANCE]
-
-"Your singing has annoyed me intensely," repeated the King Toad.
-
-Words failed the French Frog, who could only gulp.
-
-"Sire," he burst out at length, "it was a love-song."
-
-"A love-song!" said the King Toad, "a love-song! and what nice-minded
-English frog would listen to _your_ love-song?"
-
- [Illustration: HIS INSIDE WAS RED-HOT]
-
-The French Frog might have scored a point, but prudence checked him.
-
-"I am a poor exile, Sire," he said, "and, when I sing, my heart is far
-away."
-
-"So will your voice be, soon," said the King affably. "Come out,
-fire-toads." The fire-toads squirmed from underneath him.
-
-The French Frog eyed them greedily. There are worse eatables than little
-toads.
-
-"You may have the big one," said the King.
-
-"Sire!" screamed Bombinatrix.
-
-But she was too late. The French Frog's mouth had closed again, and all
-now visible of Bombinator was one distraught hind leg.
-
- [Illustration: HE LAY AS HE HAD FALLEN ON HIS BACK]
-
-"Excellent," murmured the King Toad, and watched the French Frog
-narrowly. He was worth watching. He paled a dirty ochre, his eyes rolled
-horribly, he scratched his sides with both hind feet, he dragged at his
-own throat, he gasped and foamed and spluttered.
-
-"Most interesting," said the King.
-
-But there was more to follow. The French Frog straddled with his toes
-wide spread; then came an uncontrollable explosion, which flung him four
-feet skywards, and, at the height of this great leap, loosed Bombinator.
-
-Two thuds were heard, the first a sounding, floppy one, the second
-farther off and duller.
-
-"I thought that would happen," said the King Toad.
-
-The French Frog slowly pulled himself together, climbed up the slope,
-and sat with mouth agape. His inside was red-hot.
-
-The Natterjack burst into song, the Green Toad joined him, the
-Salamander laughed outright, but Bombinatrix, with a heavy heart, hopped
-silently away.
-
-She was not long in finding him. He lay, as he had fallen, on his back,
-his hands and feet outspread, his poor throat twitching. But he still
-breathed, breathed in short, wheezy, gasping sobs, which made his whole
-frame shudder.
-
-She crept up close and whispered. I cannot tell you what she said, but
-Bombinator caught the sense of it. He stretched his legs as far as they
-would go, and clasped his hands beneath his chin. This seemed to ease
-his breathing, and presently, from every pore, welled a bead-drop of
-moisture. He lay thus for an hour, and Bombinatrix mounted guard beside
-him.
-
-At last he moved, but Bombinatrix checked him instantly. "Down, Toad of
-mine," she whispered, "down for your dear life!"
-
-"What is it now?" he groaned.
-
-"Ducks," whispered Bombinatrix, "Great, Fat, White Ducks!"
-
- [Illustration: "DUCKS," WHISPERED BOMBINATRIX, "GREAT,
- FAT, WHITE DUCKS"]
-
-
-
-
- ANIMALS' NESTS
- (MARCH)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-When a young friend of mine told me the other day that he was going
-birds'-nesting, and I told him in reply that I was going animal-nesting,
-I think that, if he had not been a very polite young friend, he would
-have laughed at me. As it was he laughed _with_ me--which was really
-very nice of him, for he must have been thinking all the time that I was
-laughing at _him_. But I was quite serious really. I _was_ going
-animal-nesting. I hear you ask at once, "What animal was it?" and I
-might tease you by saying, "Any animal, of course. When you go
-birds'-nesting you look for any kind of bird's nest _you_ can find, and
-when I go animal-nesting, I look for any kind of animal's nest _I_ can
-find." But I won't do that, because there are only a few animals' nests
-which can be found in the same way in which you find birds' nests. All
-animals make some kind of nest for their babies, and most of them make
-some kind of nest to sleep in too. They make them in such queer,
-out-of-the-way places, though, that it would be quite impossible for any
-boy or girl, let alone a man or woman, to find them; for the first thing
-to be done would be to choose the right hole in the ground, and the next
-thing to be done would be to crawl down it. Some animals, however, make
-nests which are not in burrows, and though these are not nearly so easy
-to find as birds' nests, they can be found if you know the sort of place
-to look for them in.
-
-There are four animals in this country whose nests can be found without
-having to dig, and these are the mole, the squirrel, the dormouse, and
-the harvest-mouse. Three of these build their nests above the ground,
-and the fourth, "the little gentleman in black velvet," builds the
-ground above his nest. I am going to tell you something about this one
-(the mole) first, because his nest, I think, is the easiest to see. I
-expect most of you know those queer little heaps of earth which are
-sometimes dotted about the fields and are called mole-hills (I want you
-to keep these in your minds for the moment), and I expect those of you
-who have got a natural history book will have seen a picture of what is
-called a mole fortress. I want you to put that out of your mind
-altogether; it is quite wrong. Now, the little mole-hills never have a
-nest in them, and I am not quite sure why the moles make so many, but if
-you ever find a really big hill among the little ones, as big as six or
-seven of these heaped together, and grub down into it (it is quite soft,
-and you can do this with your hands if you don't mind getting dirty),
-you will find a mole's nest just about the place where you would find
-the grass growing if there was no hill at all. In May or June you may
-find the baby moles. Have a good look at them and put them back, for you
-won't be able to keep them alive, and the mother mole is sure to come
-back and look after them--when you have gone.
-
- [Illustration: FOUR MOLES' NESTS TOGETHER. THE BIG HILLOCK
- OF EARTH ABOVE THEM HAS ALL BEEN TAKEN AWAY SO THAT THEY
- COULD BE PHOTOGRAPHED]
-
-Another animal's nest which is easy to find is the squirrel's, but of
-course it is no use looking for this anywhere but in woods and places of
-that kind where you know there are squirrels about. A squirrel's nest is
-in a hole, or fork of a tree, and always, always out of reach. When it
-is in a fork of a tree it looks like an untidy bird's-nest, made of
-rather big twigs. It has a soft, warm lining, though, and, if you can
-get up to it, you may find the baby squirrels inside in June. If they
-are furry you can take them away, for then they are quite easy to bring
-up and tame.
-
- [Illustration: THE SQUIRREL. "SQUIRREL MEANS SHADOWTAIL"]
-
-Then there is the harvest-mouse's nest, which is the most beautifully
-made of all, and is usually to be found in cornfields, built some way up
-the stalks, and looking just like a bird's-nest except that it is quite
-round and has no opening that you can see. One can't very well walk
-about in a cornfield, but you have another chance of finding a
-harvest-mouse's nest in the hay-time, for they often build in the hay,
-and once I found one with babies in it, on a haycock, where it had been
-thrown without any one noticing it.
-
- [Illustration: THE HARVEST MOUSE'S NEST
- The most beautifully made of all]
-
-You have two chances, too, of finding a dormouse's nest, for this mouse
-builds one nest for the babies, and another to sleep in through the
-winter. Both of them are rather big compared with the harvest-mouse's
-nest, and they are generally made of moss and leaves, often honeysuckle
-leaves, which the mother dormouse seems to like, though I can't tell you
-why.
-
-The dormouse often makes a sleeping-nest at the side of a path through a
-wood, and does not seem to fasten it very carefully, for one sometimes
-finds it in the middle of a path, as if the dormouse had turned over in
-his sleep and sent the whole thing rolling. It may be, though, that some
-hungry animal has pulled the nest out, and thinking the dormouse dead,
-preferred to take the chance of finding something alive and warm, and so
-left it.
-
-If you ever find a sleeping dormouse, which will feel quite cold, you
-should take the nest and all and keep it somewhere out of doors. For if
-you bring it into a warm house, it will wake up before its proper time
-and very likely die; but if you leave it alone until the spring comes,
-it will wake up as Mother Nature meant it to, and you will have a pet
-which you will like much better than one which you looked at in a shop
-window, and could not resist buying.
-
- [Illustration: THE DORMOUSE]
-
-Now there are other things for you to learn about animals' nests besides
-the kind of places in which you may hope to find them. To begin with,
-you must remember that an animal has not got the beautiful little
-nest-making tool which a bird has--I mean, of course, a beak. A bird's
-beak is used something like a knitting-needle, to thread the little
-wisps of hay and feathers and moss and things like that in and out and
-round about, until they stick where the beak tells them. I expect that
-animals use their teeth a little in the same way, but they use them
-more, I think, in biting leaves into strips, in softening hard stalks,
-and cutting thick grasses into thin ones, and I feel sure that they
-would find knitting very awkward, because of their thick lips. Most
-animals, instead of building a nest in front of themselves, build it
-round themselves. The first thing they do is to collect a little store
-of nest-material, and this they manage by biting and nibbling at
-anything which they think will be nice and soft, and carrying it away in
-their mouths. I expect most of you have seen a house-mouse's nest. It is
-usually made of scraps of paper and wool and fluff and other little
-rubbishes, which they can pick up behind the walls and under the floor.
-Sometimes, though, Mousey is not content with a common kind of nest, and
-gets into a hat-box and spoils a pretty hat, or into a drawer and spoils
-valuable papers. Once a mouse nibbled the date and the signature off a
-valuable paper of mine. That was all she took, but it gave me a great
-deal of trouble, for it was a legal paper, and it had to be done all
-over again. Sometimes Mousey chooses even queerer places. I will tell
-you three I have heard of; the first was a tin of gunpowder, the second
-was a box of cigars, and the third was a plum cake. The last sounds the
-nicest, doesn't it? But mousey is very fond of tobacco, and I have often
-seen her, when the house was quiet, nibbling at scraps of tobacco which
-I had dropped on the carpet.
-
- [Illustration: A DORMOUSE'S NURSERY NEST, BUILT IN A FURZE BUSH]
-
-The first thing that animals do, then, is to collect a little store of
-nest material. The next thing is to dive right into the middle of it.
-When they are well in the middle, they begin turning over and over, with
-a tug here and a push there, and little curls and flicks of the tail
-(the Harvest Mouse has the most useful tail of any of our animals, and
-that, I think, is one reason why his nest is so neat), until in a very
-short time they have scooped out a hollow in the ball of grass, or
-whatever it may be, and are sitting inside it. Sometimes they have to
-come out and get some more grass, and then the outside of the nest,
-which is quite springy, closes up like a little trapdoor behind them,
-and they have to make a fresh way in.
-
- [Illustration: THE HARVEST MOUSE]
-
-
-
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES
- (APRIL)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-I expect that most of you have seen some of the wonderful foreign
-beetles, whose wing-covers gleam and sparkle with colour as though they
-were studded with jewels; and some of you, perhaps, may have envied the
-small Black Folks down south, who have the chance of finding such
-beautiful things. But if you have a microscope, or even a magnifying
-glass, or if you know some one who will lend you either, you need not
-envy the small Black Folks at all, for here, in our own dear country,
-there are hosts and hosts of beetles as beautiful as any in the world.
-But there is always a something, isn't there? and the something in this
-case is that they are so very, very small. There is another something,
-and that is that nearly all of them have such very, very long names. The
-reason for this is that the young people were not the first to find
-them. If they had done so they would certainly have given them names
-which grownups could understand, just as the young people of long ago
-christened Tom-Tit and Jenny Wren, and Daddy Long-legs and Flitter
-Mouse. All these names have lived since they were first made, and they
-will live, I think, long after some much more learned names for the same
-things have been altogether forgotten.
-
-Now I must tell you how to find these beautiful little beetles, and I
-think that you will be able to find them very soon after you have read
-these lines, for the spring-time will have come, and the May will have
-flowered, and there is nothing that the little beetles like better than
-May-buds. All you have to do is to find a May-tree (it doesn't matter if
-it is white or pink, and it needn't even be a May-tree so long as there
-is plenty of blossom on it) and hit one of the branches with a stick,
-and hold a butterfly-net, or an old umbrella, or a piece of newspaper,
-or even your hat (an old hat is best) underneath, and catch what falls
-from the branches. You will find all sorts of things, but among them
-there are sure to be some tiny long-snouted beetles which are called
-Rhynchophora. That is a dreadful name, isn't it? but I think that the
-English word "weevils" is just as ugly. Though they are very small
-indeed, you will see at once that they have very wonderful colours.
-Probably you will catch an emerald-green one, and a sky-blue one, and
-perhaps a little square-shaped scarlet one, which is not very uncommon,
-and there may come a red-letter day when you catch one of the most
-beautiful little beetles in the world, who is green and crimson and
-gold. I have done this twice myself.
-
- [Illustration: THE STAG-BEETLE]
-
-There are so many different beetles in our country that no one has ever
-collected all of them. Most are very small indeed, like the weevils, but
-a few are quite big, and I am showing you pictures of some of the
-largest.
-
-Perhaps I ought to tell you how to know a beetle when you see one. This
-sounds easy enough, but it is not quite as easy as it sounds. All
-beetles have six legs (beetles' bodies are divided into three parts, and
-the legs grow out of the middle part); nearly all of them have strong,
-horny covers for their wings, and all of them have their skeletons
-outside. This sounds a very topsy-turvy arrangement, but it is quite
-true. We have our bones inside, and our flesh outside, but beetles have
-their bones outside and their flesh inside. Sometimes you may see
-beetles crushed flat in the road, but often they are trodden on or run
-over without being killed; and the reason for this is that their hard,
-outside skeletons prevent their soft insides from being altogether
-squashed up. Once I ran over a Stag-beetle on my bicycle--it was nearly
-dark at the time, and I was over him before I could get out of his way.
-Now a big Stag-beetle weighs about an eighth of an ounce, and I am
-rather a heavy person--indeed, with my bicycle thrown in I should think
-that I must weigh over two hundredweight, which is about thirty thousand
-times as much as the Stag-beetle. You can imagine how surprised I was to
-find that the Stag-beetle was not hurt. I ought to tell you, though,
-that the road was soft, and that my bicycle-tyres were not blown up
-hard, so perhaps the Stag-beetle did not get all my weight on his
-back--but, anyhow, it was a wonderful escape for him, wasn't it?
-
- [Illustration: THE STAG-BEETLE
- This is the one that I ran over on my bicycle]
-
-The two largest beetles in this country are the Stag-beetle and the
-Great Black Water Beetle. I am not sure which should really be called
-the larger of the two, for it seems hardly fair to count the
-Stag-beetle's antlers, and if we leave these out, I fancy that the Great
-Black Water Beetle has the bigger body. It is curious that these two
-large beetles should be such quiet, easy-going things, and that they
-should never dream of eating beetles smaller than themselves.
-
- [Illustration: THE FEMALE STAG-BEETLE, WHOSE ANTLERS
- ARE QUITE SHORT, AND TWO STAG-BEETLE GRUBS]
-
- [Illustration: THE GREAT WATER BEETLE
- Who looks as if he was silver-plated underneath]
-
-But so it is, for both of them, the Stag-beetle on land and the Great
-Water Beetle in the ditch, eat scarcely anything at all, and, when they
-do eat, are quite content to suck the juices out of plants. One reason
-for these big beetles eating so little is, I think, the very long time
-which they have for feeding while they are caterpillars--beetle
-caterpillars, by the way, are always called "grubs" or "larvae," and
-beetle chrysalises are called "pupae." The grubs of the Stag-beetle live
-on decaying wood (you may sometimes find them at the bottom of an old
-gate post which has decayed under the ground), and take three or four
-years to become "full-fed." The grub of the Great Water Beetle spends
-all his time (three or four years, too, I expect) in the water, and I
-think he feeds on decaying plants, but I am not sure of this. Some
-people say that the Stag-beetle uses his great antlers to crush twigs
-and leaves so as to get the juice. This may be so, but I have never seen
-him do it.
-
- [Illustration: THE MUSK BEETLE
- Who has a very nice smell]
-
-Another big and beautiful insect is the Musk Beetle. As you see in the
-picture, he has very long horns and a narrow body. He is a beautiful
-bronze green all over, and must be a wonderful sight when he is flying
-in the sunshine. I have never seen him fly myself, but people who have
-say that his legs and horns stream out behind him, so that he must look
-like a little green Heron. Perhaps the most wonderful thing about him,
-however, is his scent. I expect most of you know those little round pink
-sweets which are called "cachous." He smells just like the taste of
-those, and that is why he is called Musk Beetle.
-
-Another big beetle I have to show you is the Cockchafer. You must look
-at his picture carefully, because it shows you how a beetle lifts up his
-hard wing-covers when he is going to fly. Some beetles, the Burying
-Beetle for one, turn these wing-covers almost upside down when they are
-flying, so that the hollowed side is uppermost. I expect that this helps
-to keep them up when they are flying, and perhaps it helps them to start
-as well.
-
- [Illustration: THE COCKCHAFER RAISING ITS WING-COVERS
- JUST BEFORE TAKING FLIGHT]
-
-Of course you have all heard of the wonderful flying machines which are
-now being made. To fly at all, you must be able to do three things: lift
-yourself up, keep yourself up, and move about. If you can do these three
-things just as quickly and just as slowly as you want to, you will be
-able to fly perfectly. The hardest puzzle of all is how to make a
-machine which will keep itself up (and the right way up too) without
-moving about very quickly. This is what many birds can do so
-beautifully, and I expect that in time (all great inventions take a long
-time to make perfect, and they are never the work of one man alone, but
-rather of one man helped by the work of many men who lived before him)
-machines will be made in which men will be able to fly as perfectly as
-birds. At present they only fly as perfectly as beetles, but that they
-should be able to do this is a very wonderful thing. The great
-difference, in flying, between a beetle and a bird like a gull, is that
-the beetle has to keep going full speed all the time, or else he will
-tumble down to the ground, while a bird like a gull can poise balanced
-in the air, with just a flap or turn of his wings now and then to keep
-himself the right way up.
-
- [Illustration: THE CHURCHYARD BEETLE
- When this Beetle is cross, he puts his head down, and rears
- up backwards as if he were going to kick]
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- BUNNY RABBIT
- (LADY DAY)
-
-AUTHOR'S NOTE
-
-There are "go-to-bury" rabbits and "stub" rabbits. The "go-to-bury"
-rabbits have the longest ears, but the "stub" rabbits, as any stoat will
-tell you, are the best for dinner.
-
-Moreover, there are rabbits and bunny rabbits--but all were bunny
-rabbits once.
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Bunny Rabbit missed the bluebells, though these rang in his birth.
-
-Up rose the kingly foxgloves, tier upon tier of them pink-purple, but
-Bunny Rabbit missed these too.
-
-A golden world--the ragwort blazing on the slope, below the mellowing
-corn-field, and, mantling primrose hills, the dawn.
-
-Now Bunny Rabbit was ready.
-
-The burrow winds in four sharp turns, and, at each one, he stubbed his
-nose. This through a mad desire to keep near Mother; for Mother's tail
-bobbed in quick jerks, shaving each corner to a hair, and he and all his
-brothers raced to catch it. They reached the entrance packed as one, but
-Bunny Rabbit, squirming clear, shot past the uplifted paw, butted his
-waiting Father, flung off him like a smoke-puff, and landed on his back
-six feet below.
-
-That is why he has a separate history.
-
-It was indeed sharp change of circumstance. The nursery had been
-pitch-black, though one short gleam of light had reached it daily. That
-was when Mother Rabbit snatched her food, and sealed the entrance up for
-fear of Father. At other times she screened her babies' eyes. So now the
-sunshine blinded Bunny Rabbit, and pointed grass-stems pricked a skin
-which nothing harder than breast-fur had touched.
-
- [Illustration: AND LANDED ON HIS BACK SIX FEET BELOW]
-
-He took some minutes to collect his wits, then twisted upright, and,
-with frightened eyes, sought guidance.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-But for the woolscrap all would have been well.
-
-Mother Rabbit was close at hand, feeding his brothers with small sprigs
-of green. Father Rabbit was close too. The sight of his lost wife had
-softened him. He purred approval. He licked the children's noses.
-
-Assuredly the lost would have been found, but for the woolscrap. The
-woolscrap fluttered, wind-borne, down the slope, and Bunny Rabbit
-nature-taught, went after it.
-
-It led him far.
-
-It caught on brambles and then flicked away. It plunged in little
-valleys. It mounted little hills. It bobbed and jerked and twisted, and
-Bunny Rabbit, panting hard, pursued.
-
-At last he caught it, checked upon a grass-stem, and--_it wasn't Mother
-after all_!
-
- [Illustration: It wasn't Mother after all!]
-
-Bunny Rabbit sat down bewildered. He was hot with running; his ears were
-prickly, his coat was rumpled. He combed his ears out, one by one,
-brushed down his face, and nibbled all the fur that he could reach. Then
-he felt better.
-
- [Illustration: HE COMBED HIS EARS OUT, ONE BY ONE]
-
-The morning breeze gained appetite and sent the woolscrap once more on
-its travels. Bunny Rabbit took no heed of it--he watched and heard the
-awakening of the wood. Bird notes, that in the burrow had been restful,
-now screamed and whistled in his ear. Out from the shelter-side of
-leaves, out from the heart of flowers, out from the grass-stems and from
-earth itself, came whirring, humming, buzzing insects. In this new
-myriad-peopled world there seemed small room for loneliness. A red mouse
-bobbed up from his hole, stared at him curiously, then whisked about and
-vanished. Bright eyes bejewelled the grass-tufts. Here a flick-footed
-lizard, here a slow-trailing blindworm, here a squat toad. The day-moths
-woke and flitted leaf to leaf. The bee-fly clambered up the thyme,
-poised hovering, vanished slantwise, and vanishing, reappeared.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-This was full entertainment, and Bunny Rabbit stared round-eyed. He
-stared till hunger gripped him. His brothers, a bare hundred yards away,
-already had acquired the art of nibbling. He had no teacher, and no wits
-by which to teach himself. So, though food lay on every side, he
-starved. He felt a craving he had never known; a tightening of his
-fluffy body; an ache for Mother. Mother would set things straight for
-him, but where to find her was beyond his reasoning.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-He wandered aimlessly this way and that; he nosed the bushes aimlessly;
-he stepped on Berus the Adder, because to him an adder, neatly coiled,
-was merely speckled ground.
-
-Berus the Adder, though infuriate, forebore to strike. Venom is far too
-precious to be squandered, and baby rabbits are too large to swallow. He
-swayed his ugly head, and slowly, very slowly, he stretched forward.
-This was enough for Bunny Rabbit, who spun about and left the wind
-behind.
-
- [Illustration: HE WATCHED AND HEARD THE AWAKENING OF THE WOOD]
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Before he had been lured by Hope, now Terror thrust her goad at him. He
-leapt two thorn-stumps blindly, and, stumbling, plunged head-deep into
-the ant-hill.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The ant-hill covers two square yards of ground, and every inch of it is
-peopled. Though soft, it is no place to fall on. Its citizens resent
-intrusion--nay, more, resent it actively.
-
-When Bunny Rabbit reached the grass he felt the pricking of a thousand
-needles. The pain and smart of them half maddened him. He rolled upon
-his back; he scraped his neck on stones; he writhed; he bit himself.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The pain eased as his torturers dropped off him. Once more he tried to
-run, but in ten yards his strength was gone. His fore-paws flopped and
-stumbled, his hind paws dragged, his nose was bruised, his coat was hot
-and steamy. So he flung down bewildered, scraped an imaginary bed (a
-poor half-hearted scraping), slid out his feet, and lay full length,
-eyes closed.
-
- [Illustration: BERUS THE ADDER]
-
-Nothing now seemed to matter much. The hornet moth came whirring past
-his ears, he never heard it; the drone fly danced upon his nose, he
-never felt it; the Man lay almost at his side, he never saw him. Poor
-tired-out baby! Nature had ordered sleep and so he slept.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The Man woke slowly. Nature had been his comfort, too, though sleep had
-not refreshed him. He rose half-dreaming, with a smile. "All right,
-little girl," he said; then his face tightened. "It's the same place,"
-he muttered, "just where we lost the locket. First bluebell, then
-foxglove, then ragwort; blue, purple, and gold. It was the gold she
-loved."
-
-The woodland rang with voices, but Bunny Rabbit slept until man spoke.
-Then he leapt up and found himself a prisoner.
-
-"You sha'n't be hurt, Bunny," said the Man.
-
-Bunny Rabbit ceased his wriggling, and lay quite limp, his eyes
-upturned, his nose a-quiver.
-
-"Why lying in the open?" said the Man "foolish, foolish Bunny. What's to
-be done with you? Stoats and foxes and hawks, Bunny. You can't be left,
-that's certain. You can't be taken to your Mother, for I don't know your
-Mother. You can't be taken to your hole, for I don't know your hole.
-Hungry, Bunny? You look as though you'd travelled. Try some grass."
-
-Bunny Rabbit knew nothing of grass and kept his teeth tight-clenched.
-
-"You must eat something," said the Man.
-
-He loosed one hand to reach a groundsel-top, and Bunny Rabbit, squirming
-clear, slipped deep into his pocket.
-
-"Well, it's your own choice, Bunny. Now you come home with me."
-
-It was dark and warm and soft inside the pocket. The Man took swinging
-downhill strides, and, at each stride, the folds changed shape. Now they
-were loose and twisty, and Bunny Rabbit stretched full length to fill
-them. Now they were tightened to a ball, and Bunny Rabbit tightened as
-the centre.
-
-The Man paused as he reached the corn, and stepped two paces up again.
-He stooped, and Bunny Rabbit was inverted. He rose, and Bunny Rabbit
-found his feet. But now he was more cramped than ever. He lay deep in
-the farthest corner. Over, and on all sides of him, was packed a
-stifling mass of green.
-
-Then Bunny Rabbit used his teeth, axe-fashion at first, but soon to
-better purpose. The lesson that he should have long since learnt was now
-enforced by circumstance.
-
-He bit and tasted.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Bunny Rabbit," said the Man, "your ears are abnormal."
-
-Bunny Rabbit lay crouched upon the hearthrug, blinking. At first he had
-found covert in the curtains, but these had been looped up. Then he had
-squeezed behind the bookcase and been, with difficulty, extracted. Then
-he had set himself to dig. The carpet had repaid him with some fluff.
-The doormat and the wicker chair seemed promising, but he made little
-headway, and so had lain down tired.
-
- [Illustration: LAY FULL LENGTH, EYES CLOSED]
-
-"Very abnormal ears, Bunny," the Man went on. "This smacks of the
-domestic. Then why so frightened?"
-
-But Bunny Rabbit was more tired than frightened.
-
-"More food, Bunny?" A bunch of green had lain upon the floor but every
-scrap had vanished.
-
-"You've had enough for one day, Bunny. It's bedtime, up you come."
-
-So Bunny Rabbit slept that night on blankets, he and the moonshine. The
-Man tossed restlessly and Bunny Rabbit watched his moving lips. Twilight
-crept in soft-footed, and Bunny Rabbit took three little jumps and
-wormed inside the bed-clothes.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"Slept well, Bunny?" said the Man; "it's more than I have. I've made my
-mind up, Bunny. I'm going. I can't bear the house. I can't bear the
-rooms. They're empty, empty, empty."
-
-The Man stepped slowly down the stairs and Bunny Rabbit stumbled after
-him. He reached the hall and paused, then caught up Bunny Rabbit, and
-once more ascended. He entered every upstairs room and gazed as though
-to clinch them on his memory. He entered every downstairs room, and in
-one room, the loneliest of all, he sat and cried his heart out.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-"We're homeless, Bunny Rabbit," said the Man. "But you're the better
-off, for your home's somewhere here."
-
-They had got half-way up the slope. The Man stood tall among the
-ragwort, and Bunny Rabbit, with wide, frightened eyes, clung to his
-shoulder.
-
-The Man stooped down, and Bunny Rabbit slid to earth.
-
-"Now you must find your home or make one," said the Man, and Bunny
-Rabbit straightway tried to make one. He plunged his forepaws in the
-ground and scratched. The dust flew out behind and, in the midst, shot
-something hard and glittering.
-
-It was a small gold locket.
-
-The Man bent down and picked it up. He opened it and with dimmed eyes he
-kissed it.
-
-"You've done me a good turn," he said--"of course it's pure
-coincidence," and Bunny Rabbit watched him out of sight.
-
- [Illustration: BUNNY RABBIT WATCHED HIM OUT OF SIGHT]
-
-
-
-
- A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX
- (MAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-I wonder how many of my young readers know why these dainty flying
-creatures are called "Butterflies"?
-
-We all know what butter is, and we know, too, that there are quite a
-number of English words which begin with "butter." It is not a pretty
-beginning, is it? But there it is. Let us think of a few--_butter_-fly,
-_butter_-cup, _butter_-wort, _butter_-fingers, _butter_-scotch--why, one
-can think of half a dozen straight away.
-
-Now this shows us clearly that "butter" is a very old word, and that the
-people of long ago (who were much less clever than we are, perhaps) must
-have used it quite naturally when they wanted to describe anything which
-was squashy, or pasty, or greasy, or slippery, or yellow.
-
-Look at the picture at the top of the next page. I wish I could have
-given it to you in its proper colours. It looks much nicer like that.
-Look at it carefully. No other English butterfly has the same pretty
-curves to its wings, and some of you, I dare say, will know what it is
-by its shape. But I must tell those who do not know. It is a Brimstone
-Butterfly, and its colour is bright, bright yellow with an orange spot
-in the middle of each wing (you can only see one wing in the picture,
-the other three are hidden behind it; one way to tell a butterfly from a
-moth is to remember that butterflies' wings close standing up, but
-nearly all moths' wings close down flat).
-
- [Illustration: THE BRIMSTONE BUTTERFLY
- After whom all "Butterflies" are probably called]
-
-It is almost certain that this insect was the first insect to be called
-"Butter"-fly because of its butter colour. When people began to see that
-there were other pretty flying things of much the same shape, though of
-quite different colours, they called them all Butterflies after this
-first one.
-
- [Illustration: THE RED ADMIRAL
- A Butterfly of many beautiful colours]
-
-So we speak, nowadays, without ever thinking of how funny it really is,
-of blue butterflies and white butterflies and black butterflies and
-purple butterflies, and red and yellow and green butterflies--all the
-colours of the rainbow, in fact.
-
- [Illustration: THE PURPLE EMPEROR
- The most gorgeous Butterfly in England, though not by any
- means the most beautiful]
-
-We would hardly talk of black butter or purple butter, would we?
-
-Some of you will perhaps wonder why the Brimstone Butterfly was the
-first to be noticed when there are so many others which are just as
-common.
-
-I think I can tell you.
-
-The Brimstone is almost always the first butterfly to be seen in the
-spring. Most butterflies die towards the autumn, and leave eggs behind,
-which hatch out in the following year, but the Brimstone, and a few
-others, sleep through the cold winter months and come out in the first
-warm days of spring and _then_ lay their eggs. The Brimstone comes out
-first of all, often quite early in February, and so he is the first
-butterfly that is likely to be noticed in the year.
-
- [Illustration: THE CLIFDEN BLUE]
-
-Perhaps his coming out at a time when cows began to give more milk, and
-butter began to be more plentiful, had something to do with his being
-called "butterfly," but I think that his colour had more to do with it.
-
- [Illustration: THE SWALLOW-TAIL BUTTERFLY
- Almost a paint-box in itself. It will give you blue, red,
- black and yellow. It is only found in the Cambridgeshire
- Fens]
-
-What lovely colours butterflies are! Have you ever fancied a butterfly
-paint-box? Let us think of a few common colours, and see how we could
-fill it. Suppose we wanted a blue? Why we should have a whole family of
-butterflies "The Blues" to choose from, and we should be just as well
-off for blacks and browns. For red we could take the beautiful scarlet
-ribbon of the Red Admiral. "Why is he called Admiral?" you ask. Well,
-Admiral is the same as Admirable, and his old name was Red Admirable.
-For purple we should have the Purple Emperor and the Purple
-Hair-streak--there is no purple quite so glorious as the purple that
-these have on their wings. For orange, the Orange-tip and the Clouded
-Yellow. For yellow, the Brimstone and several others. For white, of
-course, the Whites. Green might bother us a little, but there is one
-English butterfly, the Green Hair-streak, whose wings are a beautiful
-green underneath. As he is our only green butterfly I give you his
-picture. He is the upper butterfly in the first picture and, as you see,
-quite a little one.
-
- [Illustration: THE BLACK PEPPER MOTH
- Probably quite the blackest Moth we have. They vary very
- much in colouring though]
-
-We must not forget gold and silver. When I was young, I expected to find
-gold and silver in a really nice paint-box, and I do not suppose young
-people have changed much since then. Silver we should have no trouble
-about. There is a big family of butterflies called the Fritillaries, who
-have wonderful patches and ribbons of silver on their wings. I do not
-think you will find gold, except perhaps a little gold powder, on any
-English butterfly, but you will find it on several chrysalises. Indeed,
-Chrysalis means "the little golden one," and the name was given to these
-queer spiky things because gold patches were so often seen on them.
-
- [Illustration: THE SILVER WASHED FRITILLARY
- The silver is in broad bands on the under wings]
-
-I have seen little pictures made with the scales of butterflies' wings,
-with blue skies and green trees and everything. So you see a butterfly
-paint-box is not altogether a make-believe, though it is not an easy
-paint-box for young people to paint with.
-
-
-
-
- TWO WONDERFUL WASPS
- (JUNE)
-
-
-I expect you all must know the Common Yellow Wasps--the kind that come
-buzzing into the jam at tea-time; and I want to tell you this about
-them--that I don't think they ever really get angry if there is jam
-about and you leave them alone, though, when small people jump up and
-scream, and edge away from the table, and make bad shots at them with
-spoons, they get so frightened and bewildered, poor things, that they
-may sting somebody, because they feel they really must do something
-exciting.
-
- [Illustration: This is one of Spinipes' burrows opened up.
- There is an egg at the bottom on the left-hand side and a
- caterpillar on the right-hand side. The egg is hanging by a
- silk thread, but you can't see this]
-
-Perhaps some of you do _not_ know that there are seven different kinds
-of these Yellow Wasps to be met with in this country of ours, and I
-should be surprised to hear that any of you know _much_ about the two
-Black Wasps whose story I am going to tell you. I say "black," because
-they _look_ black, though both of them have yellow girdles on their
-bodies. I wish they had English names; for I am sure they both deserve
-them; and English names are much easier to remember than Latin ones.
-However, Latin names are the only ones I know for them, so we must make
-the best of it, and call one of them Spinipes (you must read this as if
-it were Spiny Peas) and the other Crabro.
-
-We will take Spinipes first.
-
-If you look at the picture on the opposite page, you will see what she
-is like, and, if you look at the picture in Spinipes the Sand-Wasp (p.
-151) you will see one of the clever things she does.
-
- [Illustration: This is a little picture of Spinipes
- bringing up a grub, which she is clasping beneath her body]
-
-She is building a little tube out of sand which is so delicate that the
-slightest touch from one of our own clumsy fingers will knock it down
-like a card-house, but it is strong enough for her to crawl inside; and
-she has to crawl inside very often, as you will see. I expect you will
-all want to know how she builds it, and what it is for. I will tell you
-how she builds it to begin with. You must know first that she has a pair
-of jaws which work quite differently from ours. Instead of moving up and
-down, they move across each other from side to side just like a pair of
-scissors.
-
- [Illustration: This is the Spinipes' grub feeding on the
- little green caterpillars]
-
-The first thing that Spinipes does is to work this little pair of
-scissors in the sand so as to make a little hole. I am showing you on
-page 148 a picture of her when she is just starting to dig. Every little
-pellet of sand she digs out she puts carefully round the outside of the
-hole, and presently she glues them all together. She carries the glue
-somewhere inside her, and brings it out when she wants it, Then she digs
-a little deeper and glues another layer of sand pellets on the top of
-the first one, and in a very short time she has dug a hole about two
-inches deep, and built a little tube round the top of it, which is made
-of the little sand-pellets she has brought out of the hole. Sometimes
-the tube stands straight up, but more often it bends about half-way and
-curves downwards. When she has finished it off, and is sure that the
-hole is deep enough, and the tube is long enough, she goes right down to
-the bottom and lays an egg, and she hangs the egg by a tiny thread
-(which she also makes herself, but I don't know how she does it) to the
-side of the hole a little above the bottom. You will be able to see this
-in the picture, but you must remember that in this and in some of the
-other pictures the sand has been cut away so that you can see exactly
-how the hole goes. Then, if it is a bright, sunny day, as it usually is
-when she begins digging, she flies away, and in about half an hour's
-time comes back carrying something clasped tight against her body. What
-do you think that is? It is a small green caterpillar. She stops a
-moment at the entrance of the tube, pushes the caterpillar down in front
-of her, and disappears after it. In a few seconds she is out again and
-off, and in another quarter of an hour or so she is back again with
-another caterpillar and so on, without ever tiring, through six or seven
-hours of a hot June or July day.
-
- [Illustration: This shows you the cocoon which Spinipes'
- grub makes for itself. I have opened it to show you the
- grub, and also the little partition in the shaft above the
- grub, which is the last thing Spinipes herself makes]
-
-I expect you will have guessed what the caterpillars are for. They are
-food for the wasp grub when it hatches out of the egg. Generally each
-hole has between twenty and thirty little caterpillars in it, and
-sometimes, when caterpillars are scarce, the Mother Wasp has to work
-hard for three or four days. If you dig into a hole yourself and look at
-the store of little caterpillars, you will see there is something the
-matter with them. They seem to be alive and yet they don't seem to be
-able to crawl. Wise men say that the wasp stings them just enough to
-make them drowsy so that they can't crawl out of the hole, and can't
-hurt the wasp grub by jostling up against it. It wouldn't do to kill
-them, because then they would go bad in the hole before the grub had
-time to eat them. This sounds rather cruel, but I don't think it is
-really, because it is quite certain that the caterpillars cannot feel as
-we should perhaps feel, and we may be quite sure that in the wonderful
-Nature World everything is arranged for the best, so that only the right
-number of wasp-grubs may be properly fed and grow up to do what it is
-their duty to do, and only the right number of small green caterpillars
-may grow up also.
-
- [Illustration: The little beetle that the caterpillars turn
- into. It is sitting on its own open-work cocoon, from which
- it has just hatched out. The picture makes it about twice
- its real size]
-
-You will wonder, I expect, why the Mother Wasp troubles to make the
-little tube above the hole. I think I can tell you one reason and you
-must remember this, because it was just by chance that I found it out.
-One hot morning in June I watched Mother Spinipes bringing seven
-caterpillars to her hole. Then a heavy thunderstorm came on, and the
-rain came down in buckets, and I had to run away for shelter. Late in
-the evening when it had cleared up a little, I thought I would like to
-see what had happened to the tube I had been watching, and I went back
-to the place and found that the rain had knocked it all to pieces. But I
-saw something much more interesting than this. The tube had been on the
-face of a sand-cliff, and in a crack close by there was an ants' nest. I
-found that the ants were running down the wasp's hole and bringing out
-the caterpillars as fast as they could (I saw them take six away), and
-taking them along the face of the cliff into their own stronghold. Now
-the tube that stands out from the sand somehow frightens the ants (I
-never saw an ant climb out along the tube and down inside it), and so I
-think that one of the reasons for the tube must be that it keeps away
-ants and creatures of that kind who crawl about on the face of the sand
-cliff and like eating caterpillars.
-
- [Illustration: BEFORE THE THUNDERSTORM]
-
- [Illustration: AFTER THE THUNDERSTORM]
-
-It was a long time before I found out what kind of creature the
-caterpillars stored by Spinipes would have turned into if they had not
-been caught. I thought that it would have been a small moth, but I was
-quite wrong. At different times I took several caterpillars away from
-the tubes, and tried to bring them up, but it was of no use, for they
-all died because they could not eat. One day, however, I happened to be
-sweeping with a butterfly-net in a field of lucerne--it is great fun
-sweeping, and you should try it, for you never know what you may get
-next--and I swept up what I knew at once was the self-same little green
-caterpillar that Spinipes stocked her larder with. She _always_ brought
-the same kind. Well, I got a good many of them by sweeping in the
-lucerne, and brought them up carefully, and, in due time, they spun
-little open-work cocoons on the lucerne leaves which I fed them with,
-and at last turned into small, brown, long-nosed beetles. I need not
-trouble you with the Latin names of these beetles, but I may tell you
-that they are a kind of weevil which is very common and very destructive
-to clover and plants of that kind. So, if we consider that every Mother
-Spinipes lays eight or nine eggs, and stocks eight or nine burrows each
-with about thirty destructive little caterpillars, we must allow that
-she is a very useful little wasp.
-
- [Illustration: This is a large picture of Crabro, about
- twice as big as she really is]
-
-But I am not sure that she is more useful to man than the other little
-wasp I have to tell of, the Crabro. I found out her usefulness quite by
-chance, and I expect you will like to hear how. To begin with, I must
-tell you that all the "Digger" Wasps, as some people call them, Spinipes
-and the Crabros and several other kinds, store their burrows with insect
-food for their grubs to feed on.
-
- [Illustration: This is Crabro looking out of her hole. The
- front of her face is covered with bright silver hair, so
- fine that it looks like a silver plate. The picture is
- twice her real size]
-
- [Illustration: This is how the cocoon looked when I had
- taken the sawdust away. The plug of sawdust above it leads
- into the round hole in the wood]
-
-But each one has her own particular idea as to what is the _best_ food.
-One will use nothing but little spiders, another nothing but little
-flies, another, like Spinipes, nothing but little beetle grubs. And the
-queer part is that they seldom seem to make any mistake as to the kind
-of food they want. It will be _one_ kind of spider, and _one_ kind of
-fly, and _one_ kind of beetle-grub. If there are ever more than one
-kind, they are always very near relations, and, I suppose, taste very
-much alike.
-
- [Illustration: At the bottom of the picture you will see
- one of Crabro's stores of blue-bottles, and if you look
- carefully you will see one of the fly's wings stretching
- out of it]
-
-Now Crabro's store consists of really _large_ flies, blue-bottles, and
-green-bottles--I expect most of you know the beautiful shiny
-green-bottle fly whose proper name is Caesar--and how little Crabro
-manages to overcome and carry off large bottle-flies who are several
-times her own size and several times her own weight, I cannot tell. But
-I have found out for certain that she does so, and the pictures will
-show you how I found out.
-
- [Illustration: This is what the piece of elm-bough looked
- like. You will be able to see the little tunnels, and the
- stores of blue-bottles, which are black-looking, and the
- plugs of sawdust, in which the pupa cases of the wasp-grubs
- are hidden. You can see one pupa about half way up]
-
-Last autumn a dangerous bough had to be taken down from the top of a
-high elm-tree in my garden. It was perhaps sixty feet above the ground
-and it came down with a crash and broke up into little pieces. I picked
-up one of these tubes and galleries, which I knew were insects' work.
-But there was something much more exciting than this. A number of the
-galleries had blind ends to them, and at the bottom of these were masses
-of dead blue-bottles, tightly packed, which rested on small pillows of
-sawdust, and had long plugs of sawdust above them.
-
-I opened one of the long sawdust plugs and found, as I half expected to
-find, that at the end of it next to the blue-bottles, was a small brown
-papery cocoon, and that inside the cocoon was a wasp grub. I need hardly
-tell you that I collected a lot of the wood, and kept it carefully
-through the winter, and tried to make the little grubs as much at home
-as if they had stayed up in their tree. To do this I had to keep the
-wood in moist and rather dark surroundings. Then when the spring came
-round I sometimes put the wood in the sunshine, when it was not too hot,
-and in the first week in June I was rewarded for my trouble, for the
-little wasps hatched out in dozens, and so I was able to find out what
-they were.
-
- [Illustration: This is one of the cocoons of Crabro in the
- elm-bough. Crabro is just going to hatch out. You can see
- the little black hole where she has started gnawing]
-
-Look up to the top of the trees some warm summer day, and think of the
-blue-bottle hunt which may be going on above us, and of the wonderful
-little hunter, Crabro.
-
-
-
-
- SPINIPES THE SAND-WASP
- (MIDSUMMER DAY)
-
- AUTHOR'S NOTE
-
- [Illustration]
-
-This insect-tale is based on observations of fact extending over several
-summers. It may interest some of my readers to know the scientific names
-of the chief characters mentioned. I do not think that any of them have
-popular names. The heroine is the solitary Sand-Wasp _Odynerus
-Spinipes_, a blacker and somewhat smaller insect than the familiar
-yellow Wasps of Town and Garden. The Red King and the Black Queen are
-the male and female of a solitary Bumble Bee, _Anthophora Pilipes_. The
-Mistress of the Robes is a "Cuckoo" Bee, _Melecta armata_, which attends
-on Anthophora, and lays its eggs in the cells made by Anthophora for her
-own eggs. The grubs of both feed on the honey and pollen which
-_Anthophora_ alone has the trouble of procuring. _O. Spinipes_ has
-several cuckoos, the most officious being the jewel flies, _Chrysis
-ignita_ and _Chrysis bidentata_, whose grubs, I fancy, eat the grub of
-Spinipes, as well as the food stored up for it. The Ophion is a common
-Ichneumon fly, and the beetle-grubs belong to a very common and
-destructive weevil, _Hypera variabilis_.
-
-
-The Sand Cliff splits the old gravel-pit in two, and, jutting southward,
-fronts the mid-day sun. The cuttings driven east and west of it have
-long been clothed with furze and briar and nettle. Rank grass conceals
-the cart-track round its base, and, on its summit, a thin, root-bound
-soil gives foothold to a straggling hedge of privet.
-
- [Illustration: THE SAND CLIFF SPLITS THE OLD GRAVEL-PIT IN TWO]
-
-Man, needing gravel only, scorned the sand; and, as he turned his back
-on it, came Nature, gently mothering; and brought it warmth, and light,
-and life.
-
-First the wild Bees, Red Kings, Black Queens, fringe-footed,
-shaggy-coated. These made a chambered palace of the cliff, and peopled
-it within a summer. With them came Lords-in-Waiting and their Ladies, in
-liveries of black velvet, ermine-faced; and, after these, a fluttering
-gauze-winged host--jewel-flies ablaze with green and blue and crimson,
-trim slender-waisted digger-wasps, long-streamered swart ichneumons.
-And, last of all, came Spinipes herself.
-
-Straight from the blue she dropped on May's last morning, swerved
-through the hum and racket of the Bees, poised with her smoke-grey wings
-a-whir, and lighted softly on the centre ledge, her ebony body mirroring
-the sun, her five gold girdles blazing.
-
- [Illustration: FIRST THE WILD BEES, RED KINGS, BLACK QUEENS]
-
-Down dropped a Red King at her side. He stared at her right royally, and
-kept right royal silence, yet there was kindness in his yellow face, and
-kindness in the purr of his departure.
-
-Down dropped a Black Queen in his place, and danced and hummed
-about her, and measured her slim-waistedness, and buzzed her
-disapproval.--"What is it?" asked she snappishly. "Why does it come in
-this get-up? Where has it left its furs?"
-
- [Illustration: DOWN DROPPED A RED KING AT HER SIDE. HE
- STARED AT HER RIGHT ROYALLY]
-
-"It never had furs," said a voice behind her. It was her Mistress of the
-Robes.
-
-"I know the family, Ma'am. Queer clothes, of course. But artists, Ma'am,
-artists to the toe-tips."
-
-"Artists in what?" said the Black Queen.
-
-"In Sand, Ma'am, in Sand. See, she's starting now."
-
-"That's hive-bee's work," said the Black Queen contemptuously.
-
-"The art comes at the finish, Ma'am----"
-
- [Illustration: IN SAND, MA'AM, IN SAND. SEE, SHE'S
- STARTING NOW]
-
-"Well, call me when it comes," said the Black Queen, "and keep her off
-the nurseries, and clean that eleventh cell of mine, and wait till I
-come back. She soared up skywards, fussily, cleared the cliff's head,
-circled three times about, and set a straight course south.
-
-"Good riddance!" said the Mistress of the Robes.
-
-"They're like that everywhere," said Spinipes. "What are her nurseries
-to me? Black Queens and black sand go together. Now this is red sand. I
-feel the grip and bind of it."
-
-She was quite right. The ledge was rain-washed silt. Sunshine had
-bleached the outer crust of it, but, under this, its substance was
-brick-red--fine ground stuff too, damp, clingy, easily tunnelled, and
-easily smarmed into a hold-fast mortar.
-
-"In that case," said the Mistress of the Robes, "I may as well be going."
-
-Slowly she floated off the ledge, yet kept her face towards it. Slowly
-she tacked from side to side, in dipping, widening sweeps. Slowly she
-passed the cliff's east edge, and disappeared.
-
-_Then_ Spinipes commenced to dig in earnest.
-
- [Illustration: "WELL, CALL ME WHEN IT COMES," SAID THE
- BLACK QUEEN]
-
-Her scissor-jaws worked viciously, carved four-square pellets from the
-sun-baked crust, gripped them and flung them backwards. As she engaged
-the softer soil, she added feverish foot-work, and scraped, and rasped,
-and scrabbled it, and kicked it back in dust-clouds. Her head was
-quickly buried, next her waist, and, presently, she disappeared
-completely.
-
-But not for long.
-
-She backed up to the surface, dragging a sand-load underneath her body.
-She shook this clear, and, without resting, dived afresh. Ten loads in
-all she raised, and each one meant a longer spell below. For she had
-more to do than dig. From end to end her shaft must needs be glazed--and
-this meant patient mouth-work, deft steadying touches as the mortar set,
-and skill to keep her tube's round symmetry, and guide it in a gentle
-curve to end in quiet darkness. Three inches down she sank, and, at the
-bottom, drove a slant, and hollowed out a store-room.
-
-With this the first stage ended. She left her shaft, and, poising in
-mid-air, made survey of the ledge. To right she swerved, to left again,
-outwards and back, upwards and down, until its bearings east and west,
-from sky above, and earth below, were rooted in her memory.
-
- [Illustration: _THEN_ SPINIPES COMMENCED TO DIG IN
- EARNEST]
-
-So far, so good--her morning's work was done, the picture of it fixed
-into her mind. Upwards she soared until the receding cliff shrunk to a
-splotch of brown. Once more she took her bearings and was satisfied, set
-her course east, and, with a dropping arrow's flight, came to the
-hill-top coppice. She landed on the bramble hedge which skirts its
-western clearing.
-
-"Good hunting, sister!" said the Ophion Fly. She sat on a high
-briar-leaf, her rainbow wings uplifted.
-
-"It's hardly time for that," said Spinipes. "To-morrow, p'raps. To-day I
-feed myself."
-
-"There's lucerne on the slope," the Ophion said, "and something
-underneath you."
-
-There was a snap and flicker in the grass, and presently appeared a
-pygmy beetle, long-snouted, dusty-coated, trailing its slow legs wearily.
-
-"D'you _see_ it?" said the Ophion Fly.
-
-"I see it, but what of it?"
-
-"It means good hunting, sister. Green grubs, black-headed, fatted. Too
-small for me, but just the size for you. You'll find them in the
-lucerne."
-
-"Thank you," said Spinipes, but she was half across the field, a
-dancing, filmy wisp of pink, wind-borne.
-
-A meal, and then to work, thought Spinipes. It must be done by sunset.
-It must. It must.
-
-From spray to spray she flitted. Flower after flower she robbed of its
-pale nectar. Bud after bud she nibbled. At last she found the food she
-sought, and, with her strength renewed, took flight. Upwards she soared;
-three times she circled round; then in a straight, unbroken course,
-whizzed to her shaft. Her pace was scarcely slackened as she entered.
-Her wings closed lengthways on her back, and, in a moment, she was at
-the bottom.
-
-Something was there before her.
-
- [Illustration: "GOOD HUNTING, SISTER!" SAID THE OPHION
- FLY]
-
-Something six legged, which kicked and squirmed and writhed. Something
-which coiled to a hard, slippery ball, and rolled away from capture.
-
-There was no space for it to pass, and yet there seemed no holding it.
-At last she pinned it with her feet, and, backing, dragged it upwards to
-the light. It was a radiant jewel fly, a squat, short-waisted, dumpy
-thing made glorious by its colour. Gems sparkled on it head to tail,
-sapphire and ruby, emerald and topaz, and, as it struggled, fire of gold
-blazed and died down upon its jerking body. Instinctively she shook and
-worried it. Instinctively she flung it down the slope. Head over tail,
-tight-clenched, it spun, nor opened till it reached the grass below.
-Here it snapped out to shape again, took instant wing, and, with a
-glancing flight, regained the ledge.
-
-"An excellent shaft, Madam; quite excellent. No doubt you made it for a
-special purpose. Now I----"
-
-"Listen to me," said Spinipes, "and mark my every word. If you come near
-that shaft again--if you so much as touch it with your feet, I'll sting
-your prying life out."
-
-She charged at it full swing and chased it off the ledge.
-
-"An area sneak!" she muttered, as she dropt underground once more--"and
-over-dressed at that."
-
- [Illustration: THE LAST TO CEASE FROM PLAY WAS THE
- ROSE-CHAFER]
-
-Below the walls showed signs of the encounter--it took ten minutes to
-repair their glazing. When this was done, she crept back to the
-entrance. It was high noon. A shimmery haze rose from the heated sand.
-The hum of work died fitfully away, as, one by one, the homing bees
-sought shade. The digger-wasps dived deep into their holes; the hunting
-spiders hid themselves. These were the last to cease from work; the last
-to cease from play was the rose-chafer.
-
-Him the fierce blaze of heat impelled to bursts of clumsy flight. Across
-the pit and back again, and up and down the surface of the cliff, he
-whirred and swung at random. Soon even he grew listless, and crept
-within the shelter of the privet.
-
-The change came with a catspaw breeze, which rippled from the valley,
-and, in its quiet passing, fanned the cliff.
-
-It brought back life and energy.
-
-Out flew the bees, a jostling, buzzing throng of them, see-sawing wildly
-up and down, swinging, reversing, wheeling. At length they towered and
-broke to work. Out crept the hunting spiders, zebra-coated; the
-fluttering, dancing, digger-wasps; the lightning-footed ants. Out, last
-of all, came Spinipes herself.
-
- [Illustration: OUT FLEW THE BEES]
-
-Her first care was her toilet. She combed her long antennae out and
-nibbled at each foot. A circling flight to stretch her wings ended where
-it had started; and, in a moment, she had plunged below. Two minutes she
-stayed underground, then came up slowly backwards. Between her jaws was
-a clean-cut sand pellet. She placed it on the rim of the shaft opening,
-and, with deft touches from her lips, cemented it in station. She danced
-about it joyously, with fluttery wings, with airy, buoyant feet,
-moistened it here, kneaded it there. Once more she dived and dragged a
-second pellet up, and fixed this too upon the rim. So diving, digging,
-fixing, shaping, she raised a low ring-parapet.
-
-Hour after hour she toiled, tier after tier she added, gluing each
-pellet firmly to the last, yet leaving open space between each junction.
-So rose a filagree tube of sand, so fragile that a touch would crumble
-it; so strong that it would bear four times her weight. Before a shadow
-reached the cliff, it was a half-inch high. But shadows meant an end to
-the day's work, and Spinipes crept down below and slept.
-
- [Illustration: HOUR AFTER HOUR SHE TOILED]
-
-The morning sun had shone four hours before she stirred. She peered out
-round-eyed from her tower, and, twisting on the rim of it, hung for a
-while head-downwards. A flash of green and crimson light, and something
-settled under her. It was the Jewel Fly again.
-
-"Fine progress, Madam, and a first-rate tower. I never saw a better."
-
-No word said Spinipes, but straightway launched, and flew at her.
-
-"Out, cuckoo-sneak!" she screamed. "Out! or I sting!"
-
-The Jewel Fly dodged like a gnat, and vanished round the corner.
-
-She certainly meant mischief.
-
-The lowest chamber of the shaft now held a precious thing--a
-spindle-shaped gold egg, slung to the side-wall by a silken thread. Back
-darted Spinipes to look at it; and test the fine-spun sling again; and
-fuss with it; and feel that it was hers.
-
- [Illustration: THE LOWEST CHAMBER OF THE SHAFT NOW HELD
- A PRECIOUS THING]
-
-Then up to her look-out once more. This time she dropped down to the
-sand and sunned herself contentedly.
-
-The Bees had long been working. Forward and back they passed
-unceasingly, now and again one towered, now and again one settled; but
-never did their labour-song, a droning, buzzing, humming chanty, weaken
-or gather strength. The Jewel Fly had vanished altogether, yet Spinipes
-still seemed to fear her coming. A full half hour she stayed on guard,
-and spent the time in adding to her tower, and rounding off its
-entrance, which, of its own weight, took a gentle down-curve. Then,
-after one last gaze upon her egg, she flew afield.
-
-"Good hunting, sister!" said the Ophion Fly. She sat on the same leaf as
-yesterday.
-
-"I want them now," said Spinipes.
-
-"The're thousands of them, thousands," said the fly, "and most of them
-quite fat."
-
- [Illustration: IT WAS A FLABBY, GREEN, BLACK-HEADED
- GRUB]
-
-But Spinipes was too engrossed to hear her. Already, swayed by instinct
-she was hunting, hunting an unknown quarry in the lucerne. From plant to
-plant, from leaf to leaf, she fluttered. Now she dropped down to earth,
-and ran this way and that in the green twilight tangle. Now she sped
-nimble-footed up a stalk. Now she took flight and skimmed above the
-leaves.
-
-At last she paused, her every muscle trembling, and stared at what
-confronted her.
-
-It was a flabby, green, black-headed grub, fixed slug-like on its
-food-plant. A trail of skeleton tracery marked where its jaws had
-passed, and, as it reached the border of its leaf it swung its head, and
-starting near midrib, gnawed yet another ribbon-strip of green.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-It ceased to feed as Spinipes appeared, and rested motionless, until her
-weight made its leaf-platform shiver. Then it dropped silently to earth.
-But Spinipes reached earth almost as fast, and, quartering every inch of
-ground, found it and gripped it tightly. It struggled feebly as she
-pinned it down, and, as she stung it, shuddered. The sting was measured
-to the millionth part. It robbed the grub of sentient life, yet left it
-living. So Nature had enjoined. For every infant Spinipes, a score of
-live green grubs. Robbed of full life, lest struggling they should harm
-the egg; forbidden death, lest dying they should taint the shaft; lulled
-to long sleep in mercy. Of Nature's ordinance the grub knew nothing--and
-Spinipes knew nothing. Her task was to make store of food against the
-time when her gold egg should hatch. Instinctively she knew the grub was
-food: instinctively she paralysed its being: instinctively she laboured
-to transport it.
-
-Her jaws were fastened tight behind its head. Slowly she dragged it up a
-stalk until blue sky alone was over her. Then, loosing her mouth-grip of
-it, and clasping it with all six legs, she soared on high; one long
-unbroken down-glide brought her to her tower. An instant's pause to
-shift her grip, and she had pushed the grub within the entrance. Keeping
-a foot-hold on it, she eased it gently downwards, until it lay beneath
-her egg. She turned it over on its back and propped it to the side wall,
-caressed her egg, and mounted to the light again.
-
-Back to the lucerne field she flew, and, in ten minutes, reappeared, a
-second grub beneath her.
-
-This, too, she propped up carefully, and so she worked throughout the
-day, hunting, benumbing, storing. Twelve grubs in all she brought. All
-twelve she packed into a single pile. A few made feeble movements, and
-these, for prudence' sake, she stung afresh.
-
-She passed the night contentedly, for it had been good hunting.
-
- [Illustration: An instant's pause to shift her grip, and
- she had pushed the grub within the entrance.]
-
- [Illustration: "Take that--and that--and that," said
- Spinipes, and drove her sharp sting home.]
-
- [Illustration: TWELVE GRUBS IN ALL SHE BROUGHT]
-
-The morrow's sky was wind-swept. Across it scurried wisps of grey with
-torn and fretted edges. These raced to catch each other, and fused in
-rounded velvet clouds. Mass joined to mass, and, surging slowly upwards,
-veiled the sun. Southwards, where earth met sky, a fine-drawn streak of
-blue endured, while, here and there, a rent across the veil gave passage
-to a radiant fan-spread beam. Once only did such radiance reach the
-cliff. It brought a treacherous message. Out swarmed the bees to snatch
-the chance of work, and out, with like intent, came Spinipes. Straight
-to her hunting-ground she flew, but, even as she reached it, came the
-rain.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-For two hours she was weather-bound. At last a watery gleam of light,
-mirrored in every dripping leaf, enticed her from her shelter. Homeward
-she sped, and, reaching home, found havoc. Her tower was gone--the
-rain had razed it utterly--but there was worse mishap than this.
-Swift-scurrying on the surface of the sand were gangs of ants, and every
-gang was busy with a grub, one of _her_ grubs. They pulled and pushed
-and shouted to each other, and worked their burdens upward to the cleft
-which marked their city's entrance. She poised aghast, as with a mocking
-spit at her, the gaping shaft disgorged another grub. Six sturdy ants
-came with it, and, ranging up in order, (a pair to tug, a pair to push,
-a pair to guide,) commenced their long ascent.
-
-The grubs might be replaced in time--what of her precious egg? Downwards
-she tumbled headlong. Three grubs, the lowest of the pile, were left;
-her egg-- She had been in the nick of time. Her egg was there, nay more,
-it was uninjured. Her mother instinct told her this as, with quick
-trembling passes, she felt the hang and weight of it. Her mother
-instinct swung her round, as down the shaft she heard a scraping
-footfall. Even as she turned, an ant's black face peered round the lower
-bend.
-
-"Out thief!" she cried. "Assassin! Bandit! Robber!"
-
-The ant retreated hurriedly, but all that night she sat at the shaft's
-mouth, and barred the way below with her own body.
-
-Next day the weather mended--a blaze of sun from an unclouded sky, and,
-on the sand-cliff, ecstasy of life.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Hard work in store for Spinipes! Three hours she spent in raising a
-fresh tower, five hours in reprovisioning her burrow. But she no longer
-worked alone. For others of her race had found the cliff, and other
-towers, twin to her own, were rising from the sand-ledge. Between them
-pygmy digger wasps dug shafts to match their bodies, and trident-tailed
-ichneumons sailed about them, and sneaking, prying, jewel flies, here,
-there, and everywhere on mischief bent.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-She _caught_ her old acquaintance, caught her in the act, and dragged
-her out, and stung her as was promised.
-
-"I looked inside, that's all--that's really all," whimpered the culprit
-as she clutched the rim.
-
-"Take that--and that--and that," said Spinipes, and drove her sharp
-sting home. But jewel flies are toughened folk, and this one, flung
-aside at last, was in full flight, and merry as a grig, within a minute
-of her punishment.
-
-Daily the work grew harder. It took more time to find the grubs, since
-other wasps were hunting, and soon the increasing bulk of them taxed her
-full powers of flight. Once, as she neared the ledge, she dropped her
-burden. It lay where it had fallen till it died, for neither she nor
-other of her kind had wit to forge, or mend, a link in instincts broken
-chain. Once she found strange additions to her store. A human hand had
-robbed a neighbouring shaft and, with well-meant intention, sought to
-help her. Vain fancy! Here the self-same chain (to hunt--to catch--to
-bring--to store) was, end for end, reversed. The alien grubs were, one
-by one, dragged forth, and, one by one, flung headlong.
-
- [Illustration: SHE SANK FIVE OTHER CURVING SHAFTS AND BUILT
- FIVE TOWERS TO GUARD THEM]
-
-Within a week the burrow held full store, a stack of five-and-twenty
-grubs piled up to meet the egg. This last was at the hatching-point. The
-silken cord, by which it hung, had lengthened with its growth, and each
-hour found it closer to its food. All had gone well, and Spinipes' last
-task, to seal the shaft with a partition-wall, was soon accomplished.
-Nor did she ever see that egg again. In time the tower itself fell in--I
-fancy that she helped it, and in its falling, smothered the main
-entrance.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-She sank five other curving shafts--each held an egg--and built five
-towers to guard them. She made five further stores of grubs; and then,
-her life-work ended, she crept into a cleft and died.
-
-What of the eggs? you ask. They hatched to golden yellow grubs, which
-fattened on the food stores, and when, at length, their food was all
-consumed, they spun them silken coverlets, and changed from grubs to
-sleeping nymphs. They slept through autumn's dreariness, through
-winter's cold, through spring's soft showers, and, when at length the
-warmth of summer beckoned, they burst their bonds, and, working through
-the sand, flew forth, as those before them had flown forth. So
-recommenced the cycle. An aeon back it was the same. An aeon hence--who
-knows?
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- PICTURES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS
- (JULY)
-
-
- [Illustration: THE MAGPIE MOTH]
-
-I have already told you of the beautiful colours to be found on
-butterflies' wings, and how people have actually used a butterfly
-paintbox to make pictures with. Now I am going to show you some
-butterflies and moths (quite common ones all of them) which have queer
-little pictures on their wings ready made--real pictures I mean, faces
-and animals and things like that.
-
-You may find it, at first, a little hard to see them, for they are
-puzzle pictures, like those you get in crackers, but once you have found
-the face, or whatever it may be, you won't be able to help seeing it.
-
-I will start you with quite an easy one. Some of you, I expect, have
-noticed how often living creatures have a pattern on them like an open
-eye. This is called an "eye-marking," and is of course quite a different
-thing from the eye which is used for seeing with. Nearly all our
-butterflies have an eye-marking somewhere on their wings, and we find it
-in many other creatures besides butterflies. In birds, for instance (you
-will remember the peacock at once), and fish (next time you pass a big
-fishmonger's look out for a John Dory, he has a beauty) and lizards and
-snakes and frogs and things like that. It is not often seen on animals,
-though a leopard's or a jaguar's spots are something very like it.
-
-If you look at the picture of the Emperor Moth you will see that there
-is a very nicely drawn eye on each of his upper wings (his real eyes are
-quite hidden by his little fur cape); and if you look at the caterpillar
-of the Elephant hawk-moth long enough, I am sure you will think that he
-is looking back at you, and that he does not like the look of you much.
-
- [Illustration: THE EMPEROR MOTH]
-
-Here, again, it is not his eyes that you see, but his eye-markings. In
-the first picture they are just where you would expect eyes to be, and I
-must explain to you why. He is called the "Elephant" caterpillar because
-the head-end of him ("head-end" sounds rather queer; but I think that if
-one may say "tail-end" one may say "head-end") tapers off very quickly
-from his fat body, and when he swings this end of him, as he often does,
-it looks like an elephant's trunk. You will see what I mean in the
-second picture.
-
- [Illustration: THE ELEPHANT HAWK MOTH'S CATERPILLAR
- SHOWING HIS EYE-MARKINGS]
-
-Now when he is frightened or angry, he tucks his head in like a
-telescope close up to the eye-markings, and then these look as if they
-are really eyes.
-
-Some people think, and they may be quite right, that these eye-markings
-frighten off birds and lizards and things like that, who would soon eat
-the caterpillar if they did not think that his eye-markings were really
-eyes, and that they must have a big body behind them.
-
-You remember the eyes as big as tea-cups in "The Little Tin Soldier"? If
-you have not read that, read it as quickly as you can.
-
-Eye-markings are very easy to see, and I am sure that you will be able
-to find four of them on the wings of the Peacock Butterfly.
-
- [Illustration: THE ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH'S CATERPILLAR,
- SHOWING HIS TRUNK]
-
-Some people think that these frighten off creatures who might eat him,
-just like those on the Elephant Hawk caterpillar, and some people think
-just the opposite--that the eye-markings are so clear a mark that the
-butterfly's enemies will bite at _them_, and so get a mouthful of
-butterfly's wing, instead of the butterfly himself; which is, of course,
-all for the good of the butterfly. I don't think we can be quite sure
-that either of these reasons is true, but we may be certain that if the
-eye-markings were not somehow useful to the butterfly they would not be
-there.
-
- [Illustration: THE PEACOCK BUTTERFLY]
-
-The upper eye-markings on the Peacock have nothing particularly curious
-about them, but those on the under-wings each form a clear man's face
-with a big moustache, whiskers, and a bald forehead. If you hold the
-paper a little way off, you will see it clearly. It is something like
-Mr. Balfour.
-
-This is a full-face picture, but in the other moths, the Mother Shipton
-and the Magpie, you will find side-face pictures. The Mother Shipton
-takes its name from having the face of an old witch on each of its upper
-wings. I will leave you to puzzle this out for yourselves, but I will
-give you the hint that the old witch has a hooked nose and a pointed
-chin.
-
-The Magpie Moth has the side face of rather an ugly boy with a button of
-a nose and his mouth wide open. This is made up by the markings of each
-pair of wings taken together, and can only be seen when the wings are in
-a certain position. I will give you a hint here, too, which will help
-you. The seventh spot on the border of the upper wing, counting
-downwards, is the boy's eye; and he has a fine head of hair.
-
- [Illustration: THE MOTHER SHIPTON MOTH]
-
-Nearly all butterflies and moths have some kind of picture on their
-wings, and I think that it is nicer looking for these than looking for
-pictures in the fire, because, when once you have found a butterfly
-picture, you may be sure of finding it again, and showing it to other
-people.
-
-
-
-
- A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE
- (AUGUST)
-
-
-I am going to talk about two animals this time--one a very big one and
-one a very small one. I am showing you two pictures of the small one and
-two of some cousins of his. He is quite the wee-est beastie in this
-country of ours, and nearly the wee-est beastie in all the world. He is
-called the Pygmy Shrewmouse, and his name, as you see it printed, is
-just about as long as his soft, velvet body.
-
-I wonder how many of you know which is the _largest_ of our British
-animals? If you guess quickly you are sure to guess wrong, and so I will
-tell you, and then there will be no need to put you right. It is the
-Blue Whale.
-
-Very few of us have ever seen a Blue Whale, or, indeed, have ever had
-the chance; but he comes to our northern coasts almost every summer, and
-so, as he is met with in British seas, he is quite rightly called a
-British animal.
-
-He does not often swim close inshore, for, if he does, he is likely to
-be caught by the tide, and left high and dry like a jelly-fish, which,
-indeed, has more than once happened.
-
-The Blue Whales which come to this country are between seventy and
-eighty feet long (there is really no room to give you a picture of one)
-and weigh between a hundred and fifty and two hundred tons. The Pygmy
-Shrewmouse, tail and all, is less than three inches long and weighs
-about a tenth of an ounce. Now I know that measurements are difficult
-things for young folks to understand, so I will try to make you see the
-difference between these two animals of ours in a different way. I
-expect we all know what a lawn-tennis court looks like. Two Blue Whales
-would just fill a lawn-tennis court, but if we wanted to fill a
-lawn-tennis court with Pygmy Shrewmice, we should want five-hundred
-thousand of them, and if we could lift a Blue Whale on an enormous pair
-of scales, and tried to balance him with Pygmy Shrewmice, we should
-want--how many do you think? We should want more than _seventy millions_
-of them.
-
- [Illustration: THE COMMON SHREWMOUSE, WHO IS HALF AS
- BIG AGAIN AS THE PYGMY]
-
-It is wonderful to think that the wee Pygmy and the huge Whale should
-belong to the same Class of creatures. But it is so. Nearly all the
-bones in the Pygmy (some are scarcely thicker than a hair) can be
-matched by the same sort of bones in the Blue Whale. If the Blue Whale
-were a fish (and he certainly looks like one) his bones would be quite
-different and quite differently arranged, and from this we know that the
-Whale is not a fish like a Shark, but an animal like a Seal, or a Pygmy
-Shrewmouse or one of ourselves.
-
-Now we must look at the pictures. You will see at once what a long nose
-the Pygmy has got. This nose is very useful to him, for much of his food
-is tiny insects, and he pokes his nose into tiny holes after them.
-
-You can't see his teeth in the pictures, which is a pity, for they are
-very curious teeth, and the front ones, instead of pointing up and down
-like ours do, point outwards rather, and come together like a pair of
-tweezers. This helps him to catch insects too, and to pull little snails
-out of their shells.
-
-I don't think his teeth are strong enough to crack snail shells, but his
-dark-brown cousin, the Common Shrewmouse (his picture is on page 181),
-cracks snail shells quite easily, and so does his black cousin, the
-Water Shrewmouse.
-
- [Illustration: THE WATER SHREWMOUSE, WHO IS NEARLY HALF
- AS BIG AGAIN AS THE COMMON SHREWMOUSE]
-
-What does the great Blue Whale eat, you ask? I expect you will be
-surprised to hear that he eats much the same kind of things as the
-Pygmy--small slug-like creatures, scarcely an inch long, which swarm in
-parts of the sea. Of course he eats barrelfuls at once.
-
-He catches them by a wonderful arrangement in his mouth, which is made
-of what we call whalebone. It is something like the gratings across
-drain-pipes, which let the water through but stop everything else, and
-he can lift it up or drop it down as he pleases. When he is hungry, he
-takes a huge mouthful of sea-water and lets it out again through this
-whalebone grating. All the small slug-like things which are swimming in
-the water are trapped, and, when he has got most of the water out of his
-mouth, he swallows them.
-
- [Illustration: THE PYGMY SHREWMOUSE His fur has a
- beautiful purple bloom, like that on a yellow plum; and is
- so fine that it often shows mother-of-pearl colours]
-
-I don't think that the Whale can have much trouble about getting his
-dinner; all he has to do is to find the right piece of sea and then open
-his mouth; but the Pygmy, I think, has to work very hard, as he has to
-catch everything separately, and he is such a delicate little creature
-that he is seldom about unless the weather is warm and fine.
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS HOW THE PYGMY COILS HIMSELF UP
- TO SLEEP]
-
-Then he has to make up for the hungry time when bad weather has kept him
-in his hole.
-
-In the autumn one often finds dead shrewmice lying on the paths. Nobody
-quite knows why they die in the autumn, but I think it is because only a
-few of them, if any, are strong enough to stand cold and wet and hunger
-all at once. The rest die just like the leaves die.
-
-You must not think a dead Shrewmouse is like a live one to look at, for
-he is quite different. When dead, the poor little beastie lies stretched
-out straight, but when he is alive he is all bunched up together and
-runs about like a little fur ball on legs.
-
-
-
-
- IN WEASEL WOOD
- (LAMMAS DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Again the Fox Cub was puzzled. His muzzle wrinkled dubiously, his ears
-twitched and puckered, he barked (a new accomplishment), he mewed (a
-newer habit still), and then, since sound proved futile, he sank from
-his hindquarters forward slowly, grounded his nose between his paws and
-stared.
-
-This was the queerest happening of all. Queerer than the briar's queer
-flutter; and the shower of pink petals from it; and the glint of savage
-little eyes half-way up it; and the savage little chestnut face behind
-them. Queerer than the scream from the sky; and the rotten elm-branch
-dancing bough to bough; and cannoning against the trunk; and shattering
-at his feet. Queerer than the swish through the nettlebed--swish of a
-purple snaking shadow, which might have been mere bird, had the trail of
-it been clumsier, or its ripple more fretful.
-
- [Illustration: AGAIN THE FOX CUB WAS PUZZLED]
-
-Birds he had known since teething. Mother had brought them often; Father
-less often--scraggy, thin-necked, towsled things, yet mostly of fine
-flavour; finer than rabbits certainly (except quite baby rabbits);
-finer, too, than frogs; or lizards; or mice; or snails; or any of the
-myriad crawl-by-nights on which young teeth gain confidence.
-
-The Fox Cub stared round-eyed towards the bracken. It certainly was
-moving--moving in waves which spent themselves abruptly, moving in spins
-and eddies. Now and again great swathes of it sank downward.
-
-The Fox Cub froze to stone. His muzzle hardened; his ears drooped flat;
-only his tail (his brush was yet to come) twitched half in interest,
-half in apprehension.
-
-The bracken started midway down the slope, in straggling, wayward
-patches. These quickly joined in an unbroken mass, and, on the level
-ground, gained full luxuriance. A cart-track twisted through them, half
-of it clear to eyes above, half intercepted.
-
-Beyond, the ground crept up once more--bracken gave place to bramble,
-bramble to coppice, coppice to the sky.
-
-The Fox Cub's eyes missed nothing.
-
-Movement above he saw--the brown owl changing station. Movement upon
-mid-slope--the dormouse in the brambles. Movement upon the
-cart-track--the shrewmouse worrying snails. But these were mere
-diversions--their interest passed. The bracken furnished a besetting
-problem--movement inexplicable, sound inexplicable--long-drawn, wheezy
-breathings, snorts of exertion, sighs of content. There was scent also,
-heavy musted scent, which came in whiffs and dangled at his nose.
-
-But for this scent he must have smelt the Stoat. The Stoat came dancing
-up the wind, passed by to right of him, and swung about. He held himself
-with an air, his body arched, one broad white pad uplifted, his tail
-curved decorously. From where he lay, the Fox Cub took his measure, then
-slowly reared himself and yawned. He, too, had teeth to show.
-
-The Stoat's black tail twitched side to side. He met the challenge
-squarely. The Fox Cub sank full length again. The Stoat tiptoed towards
-him, and, stretching full-neck forward, nibbled at his fur. So was their
-peace established.
-
-"Badger," whispered the Stoat, and danced from point to point excitedly,
-"Badger, grub-grub-grubbing."
-
- [Illustration: HE SANK FROM HIS HINDQUARTERS FORWARD
- SLOWLY, GROUNDED HIS NOSE BETWEEN HIS PAWS AND STARED]
-
-A stunted patch of bracken burst apart, and from its cover lurched a
-broad grey back.
-
-"He scents you," said the Stoat.
-
-The Fox Cub still lay motionless. It was the broadest back he yet had
-seen.
-
-"Should one run?" he whispered. This spelt sheer ignorance of the woods.
-
-"Run?" said the Stoat. "Whoever ran from Badger but a rabbit? Badger is
-all benevolence. Badger is King. We run towards him."
-
-"Who are _We_?" said the Fox Cub.
-
-"_We?_" said the Stoat. "Why, Marten, Polecat, Stoat, and Weasel.
-Flesh-eaters All. All of one Brotherhood. Beasties Courageous. Squirrel
-is living up to us--he does his best with eggs."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"_Squirrel is living up to us?_" It was a cough and splutter from above
-and Stoat and Cub peered upwards. Squirrel sat twenty feet away, and
-stamped with indignation. "Squirrel is living up to us? My plumed tail!
-you wait till Squirrel grows."
-
- [Illustration: THE STOAT TIPTOED TOWARDS HIM]
-
-"Never mind him," said the Stoat, "he's silly."
-
-The broad grey back had swung about, and Badger's head was lifted.
-Slowly it swayed from side to side, slowly it nodded.
-
-"Where are his eyes?" whispered the Fox Cub.
-
-"In his head," chuckled the Stoat.
-
-"His head's a puzzle," said the Fox Cub--which, indeed, it was. Seen
-from above, and swinging to and fro, its clean-cut symmetries of black
-and white foreshortened in confusion.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"Wait till he fronts you," said the Stoat, and presently this happened.
-The head stopped motionless. A broad white stripe divided it; on either
-side were triangles of black; beneath was white again, and white tricked
-out the outline of each ear.
-
-"He's black beneath," said the Stoat, "and grey behind--now you can see
-him."
-
-Badger had backed a pace or two and craned his neck to snuffle.
-Ebon-chested he was and ebon-footed.
-
-"Still I can't see his eyes," muttered the Fox Cub, but, even as he
-spoke, he saw them--steadfast, watchful, gimlet eyes, as black as their
-black setting.
-
-"And now we _all_ have seen you," said the Stoat. "Marten has seen you;
-Polecat has seen you; Weasel has seen you; I have seen you; and Badger
-has seen you. Fox Cub, you yet have much to learn in stealth. Go, make
-your peace with Badger."
-
-"What have I done?" said the Fox Cub.
-
-"You've come unasked," said the Stoat.
-
-"I was brought," said the Fox Cub.
-
-"That makes no difference," said the Stoat. "The wood belongs to US!"
-
-"US! US! us!" the hillside caught the echo of it, and filled with
-sibilant voices.
-
- [Illustration: "MY PLUMED TAIL! YOU WAIT TILL SQUIRREL
- GROWS." "NEVER MIND HIM," SAID THE STOAT, "HE'S SILLY"]
-
-"US-S-S-S-s-s!" it was the Stoat departing.
-
-"US-S!" screamed the Squirrel, boldly, from his branch.
-
-"_You?_" sneered the Fox Cub. "You simian rat! You fuzz-tailed,
-fish-eyed rabbit! Think of your teeth next time you wash your face."
-
-The Squirrel stamped and spat at him. "Wait till I grow," he spluttered.
-"Wait till my head's as big as yours. Wait till I give up nuts."
-
-"Oh, do be quiet," said the Cub. "I want to think."
-
-"It might be worth my while," he mused. "I _like_ this wood."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Badger was grunting softly to himself. His head still swayed and nodded.
-Now and again he scratched the ground before him. The Fox Cub rose up
-cautiously, and sat back on his haunches. He saw the whole of Badger
-now, the iron-grey back, the magpie head, the stumpy tarbrush tail.
-
-He stole two stealthy paces down the slope, but checked as Badger
-squared himself. Two paces more--and Badger ducked his head, and charged
-full drive uphill at him.
-
-The Fox Cub bolted straightway, turned sharp upon the hill-crest, ran
-half the length of it, slid headlong down the sand-cliff (the stones
-rattling about him), followed the ride for fifty yards, swung sharply to
-the right, and so, by some strange instinct, reached the gorse-clump.
-
- [Illustration: MARTEN HAS SEEN YOU]
-
-He was quite badly scared. His tongue lolled dripping from his mouth;
-his sides heaved painfully; he felt that, come what may, he must lie
-down. So he squirmed, eel-like, underneath the furze, twisted himself
-about, and, with his head thrust outwards, snuffed and listened. He had
-outdistanced Badger--of that he soon assured himself. Yet there was
-something watching him, something whose curious stare he felt. His eyes
-ranged anxiously from point to point, dwelt on each tuft and hummock in
-the grass, dwelt long upon a jerking patch of moss, which in due course
-revealed a white-legged mouse, and in the end cast upwards.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Above him stretched a leafless branch of elm, and on its clean-cut,
-fretted edge a moving blur intruded--a blur which swelled and shrunk in
-steady rhythm, and twitched and wriggled forward in short jerks, so
-closely welded to the bark, so neatly matched in hue to it, that, but
-for movement, it had cheated sight.
-
-The Fox Cub watched it furtively, his yellow eyes upturned. It checked,
-and from the end of it dropped a soft feathery plume, and hung and
-dangled lightly. Its lines were unmistakable, it was a tail. Then, as
-the Fox Cub gazed, the head took shape--a flat-browed, taper-muzzled
-head, with shimmery velvet eyes, which seemed to look beyond as well as
-at him.
-
-Such was the Marten couched. Their eyes met, and he saw her rampant. She
-leapt from where she lay to where, six feet above, the branch forked
-double. Astride on this, her forefeet on the upper arm, her hind-feet on
-the lower, she faced about and screamed--
-
-"Ai-_yah_-ai-ee! Ai-_yah_-ai-ee! A Fox! A Fox!"
-
-The scream dropped to a whine, then to a bleat--"_Huh-huh-huh-huh!
-Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh!_"--then swelled into a scream again.
-
-Out leapt the Fox Cub, impudent, and faced the music.
-
-"The last part again, Marten," he cried. "Oh, _please_, the last part
-again!"
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The Marten stared, mouth open "A cub!" she gasped; "not even a grown
-fox--a woolly, blunt-nosed cub."
-
-"Do you know where you are?" she added, shortly.
-
-"Yes, I do," said the Fox Cub. "The wood belongs to US. Marten and
-Polecat, Stoat and Weasel. Flesh-eaters All. All of one Brotherhood.
-Beasties Courageous. I hope I've got that right--and you all kow-tow to
-Badger."
-
-"And where do _you_ come in?" said the Marten grimly. His coolness took
-her fancy.
-
-"The first good roomy hole I find," said the Fox Cub. "I like this wood
-and in this wood I'll stop."
-
-"_Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh_," said the Marten.
-
-"Quite so," said the Fox Cub.
-
-The Marten snuggled down, her eyes a-twinkle.
-
-"I know exactly the kind of hole you'd like," she said.
-
-"Where's that?" said the Fox Cub.
-
-"Listen to me carefully," said the Marten, "and you can't miss it. You
-know where the holm oak is--of course you don't. Look here. Get back on
-to the ride and follow that. It leads you to a hollow."
-
-"It leads two ways," said the Fox Cub.
-
-"You go downhill to the hollow," said the Marten, gently. "Right at the
-bottom you will find an oak-stump, and if you look inside it (which I
-don't advise), you will find a family of Polecats."
-
- [Illustration: "AND PERHAPS YOU WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH TO
- GET HIGHER UP THE TREE, WHILE I COME UNDERNEATH"]
-
-"Polecats?" said the Fox Cub.
-
-"Yes, Polecats," said the Marten.
-
-"Turn up to the left at the stump, and make for the silver birch at the
-top of the rise. The hole is close by that."
-
-"Much obliged," said the Fox Cub, "and perhaps you will be good enough
-to get higher up the tree, while I come underneath."
-
-"Certainly," said the Marten. From twig to twig she sprang, so daintily,
-so airily, that a mere flutter signalled her ascent.
-
-"Will this do?" cried she from the topmost branch. Her forefeet hung on
-its extremity; her hind-feet curved and dangled; her tail twitched
-underneath her.
-
-"That will do," said the Fox Cub. Before the words were spoken he was
-past the tree; before the Marten reached the ground he gained his
-stride, which was good going. The Marten checked at twenty yards. "I've
-done my share," she said, and sauntered up the tree again.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The Fox Cub quickly hit the ride, noted its slope, and keeping close in
-touch with it, slunk velvet-footed through the abutting cover. His pads
-dropped soft as thistle-down, he scarcely stirred a leaf, and yet the
-weasel, nosing in the brambles, got wind of him and squeaked. She was a
-five-inch weasel, too small to check his progress, yet large enough for
-mischief. Should she be silenced? He swung about--the scent of her still
-lingered--and in a moment he was on her trail. Three bounds and he had
-sighted her. She shot beneath a bramble-patch, issued where he had least
-foreseen, and tricked him in a maze of straggling roots. He worked back,
-sulky-faced, towards the ride, but checked ten paces from the oak-stump.
-Its tenant sat upon it--the purple, snaking, whiplash thing which had
-perplexed him earlier. Now he saw head to tail of it. The white-rimmed
-ears, the ochre-banded forehead, the bold eyes, spectacled with brown,
-the coarse brown-purple body-fur flecked here and there with streaks of
-shimmery buff--all these he took quiet note of, and presently saw many
-aspects of them.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The Marten had been right. The Polecat's mate came sneaking from the
-hollow, and close behind her squirmed four red-brown cubs, loose-jointed
-yet, but muscular, whimpering pettishly, mauling each other as they ran.
-
-Six Polecats knit by kinship! it was too much for one Fox Cub to face.
-He cast wide off to right of them, and, creeping quietly round again,
-regained the ride to leeward. Here it cut through rough coppice. The
-western slope was thickly wooded, low bushes mostly, chestnut, birch,
-and hazel, yet high enough to screen what lay beyond. He started to
-explore the upper ground. At first the incline was easy, but half way up
-it steepened to a cliff. Coppice gave place to grass and briar, and
-these in turn to gorse and slithery sand. By slow degrees he zigzagged
-to the summit, faced round, and scanned the depths which he had left.
-The oak stump stood out clear against the ride, and, on his right, two
-hundred yards away, he marked the silver birch. He scrambled down to
-grass again, and, travelling quickly on mid-slope, found what he sought
-within two minutes.
-
-Viewed from below--it opened near the skyline--the hole seemed promising
-enough. It was a spacious sheltered hole, almost a cavern--the depths of
-it ink-black, the entrance to it jagged and arching. The Fox Cub stole
-up cautiously and stopped dead on its threshold. Something was in
-possession, something which split the darkened void in three; something
-which crept out slowly from the black, first shadowy grey, then white--a
-clean-cut _fleur-de-lys_ of white.
-
-It was another Badger.
-
-The Fox Cub leapt back sideways, but even so she caught him. She came
-out (thirty pounds of her) full charge, and caught him low. The
-attacking badger tosses like a bull, trusting to weight and side-swing
-of the shoulders. He somersaulted twice. The Badger held straight on her
-course and disappeared downhill.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-The Fox Cub slowly pulled himself together. Had he been bitten? Bruised
-he was all over, and sick, and giddy; and so, the hole being there, he
-crept within it, and crawled down the main shaft for fifteen yards, and
-took one of four turnings, and followed this until it forked, and then
-chose the right gallery, and so attained the nest. Rather the haystack,
-for the making of it had almost stripped an acre. Bracken there was, and
-bent-grass, thyme and clover, arum stalk and bluebell, thick swathes of
-them inextricably tangled, bedding enough for twenty half-grown cubs.
-
-There was food also. He found a rabbit's leg at once, then a stiff
-mummied frog, then half a snake. He made a closer search, and found more
-rabbit. Each find he sampled. Most of them he gulped, but some he buried
-carefully for seasoning, scraping small hollows to receive them, and
-plastering earth upon them with his nose. This done, he coiled himself
-up tight, and for five minutes dozed with wakeful ears. Thirst brought
-him to his feet again; thirst and a sense of danger. Clearly this was
-the Badger's hole--he owed that Marten something. The hole had a main
-entrance. From this a single shaft led fifteen yards, but then it split,
-and smaller tunnels joined it, tunnels which might end blind. Badgers no
-doubt were most benevolent, but Badgers seem to charge at sight, and
-tunnels were poor places to be charged in. The last reflection scared
-him back to sense. He would be cornered hopelessly, would not know which
-of twenty turns to take. That settled it. To wait for them was madness.
-He must go.
-
- [Illustration: IT WAS ANOTHER BADGER]
-
-He reached the entrance without accident, and dropped soft-footed down
-the slope. A puddle on the ride was in his mind--a puddle just beyond
-the Polecat's stump. He reached this safely also, stooped down his head,
-and lapped his fill.
-
-The wood was oddly silent. Dark clouds had massed low in the sky and
-streamed to either side, outflanking it. Beneath their dreary shadow the
-green and russet of the trees faded to lifeless grey. The grass-blades
-stood up stiffly; the leaves hung stiffly downwards. All that was
-weatherwise was taking cover. Down from the summit of the ride came the
-two Badgers, bumping. They travelled leisurely.
-
-First He would root an arum up (a flick with one fore-paw), and She
-would place her paw where his had been. Then He would stretch tiptoe
-against an oak, and She would do the same. Then He would wheel sharp
-right or left, and She would follow like a truck.
-
- [Illustration: SHE CAME OUT FULL CHARGE]
-
-The Cub had time to entrench himself securely. He chose the summit of
-the Polecat's stump, and from it watched the pair of them bump past.
-They quickened as they faced the rise, and grunted to each other; then,
-with their heads down, sped in line uphill.
-
-And with their going came the rain.
-
-It spattered in large warning drops, then swished in sheets. Even before
-the thunder-peals, and rattle of fierce hail, the stump became
-untenable. The Fox Cub scrambled down from it, headed a dozen different
-ways, and, in the end, grown desperate, pursued the retreating Badgers.
-He caught them as they reached the hole, and saw them topple down it. He
-gave them half a minute's grace and toppled after.
-
- [Illustration: AND IN DUE COURSE OF TIME, HIS WIFE]
-
-What happened next? That I can only guess at. Perhaps there was a Fox
-Cub course for dinner; perhaps (and this, I think, is likeliest) the
-Badgers took small notice of his entry. They may have even welcomed him,
-and, in due course of time, his wife.
-
-
-
-
- SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING
- AND WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING
- (SEPTEMBER)
-
-
- [Illustration: THE LOBSTER MOTH CATERPILLAR
- Pretending to be a Spider]
-
-The wolves and sheep I am going to talk about are all of them insects,
-or rather all of them but one, for scientific people do not allow us to
-call spiders insects. Insects have six legs and six legs only, while
-spiders and mites and those sort of people have eight, and there are a
-great many other differences between spiders and true insects which
-would make it quite a dreadful blunder to put them in the same case in
-the Museum, or to speak of them in the same breath when you know you are
-talking to clever people.
-
-The Spider, as you might guess, is one of the Wolves, and so is the
-Dragon in the Water-weed, who turns into one of our largest dragon
-flies, if he is lucky; while the caterpillars and the Giant Wood Wasp
-are just silly harmless sheep.
-
-Have you ever thought of the wonderful struggles which are always going
-on in the insect world--the struggles to eat, and the struggles not to
-be eaten? Nearly all insects seem to be the food for something or other.
-Most animals enjoy them thoroughly, so do many birds, and many reptiles
-and amphibians (frogs and toads) and many fish. I think that spiders
-live on them entirely, and they have also cannibals to fear among their
-own kind, for though most insects feed on plant-juice, quite a large
-number of them turn to stronger meat, and spend their lives in hunting
-their poor relations. It sounds rather horrible, doesn't it? But we may
-be quite sure that everything of the kind has been mercifully arranged
-so that this beautiful world of ours, with all its joy and colour, and
-its millions and millions of happy children--I do not think that any
-lives but those of human beings are ever really unhappy--may keep its
-beauty always. That is why the ichneumon flies have to kill down the
-caterpillars, for, if there were too many caterpillars, there would be
-no hedgerows, let alone vegetables for dinner; and the Rove Beetles, who
-have curly cock-up tails, have to kill down the little boring beetles,
-for, if there were too many little boring beetles there would be no
-trees; and the Crabros have to kill down the blue-bottles, for if there
-were too many blue-bottles--well, goodness knows what _would_ happen to
-some excitable people.
-
-We must believe then that things are best as they are--that a struggle
-for life is part of a Great Plan, Greater than our human minds can
-grasp, and that the lives of the hunters are as useful in their way as
-the lives of the hunted.
-
-Now how would we ourselves act, if our lives depended on catching
-things? And how would we act if our lives depended on not being caught?
-I don't think we could add much to what the insects and spiders have
-taught us. To hunt successfully you must get so near to your quarry that
-you can kill it. If you are quicker-footed, well and good. If you are
-slower-footed you may employ something quicker-footed than
-yourself--this is what happens in fox-hunting; or you may approach
-without being seen--this is what happens in deer-stalking: or you may
-hide yourself and wait for your quarry to approach you--this is what
-happens in tiger-shooting; or, lastly, you may employ traps and snares,
-which is how most fishing is done. I don't think that any creatures but
-ourselves employ lower creatures to hunt for them, but the other ways
-are used by all sorts of animals, and the last two are used more
-skilfully by insects and spiders than by anything else.
-
- [Illustration: THE SPIDER ON THE BRAMBLE BLOSSOM]
-
-Look at the pictures of the spider on the bramble-blossom. This
-particular spider belongs to a family called _Thomisus_ (I don't know
-why) and he varies in colour from a bright sulphur yellow to a delicate
-green, which is an exact match to the green of an unopened bramble-bud.
-In three of the pictures (a fly has settled close to the spider in two
-of them) you will be able to make out the spider pretty soon, I expect,
-for he has stretched his legs out. He keeps quite still in this
-position, and I think he fancies that he is a bramble-bud. But in the
-other picture I am pretty sure that, if he did not happen to be a rather
-fat spider, you would find it very difficult to distinguish him, and you
-may be certain that a fly would find it just as difficult. He is a wolf
-in sheep's clothing, and the sheep are bramble-buds.
-
- [Illustration: THE DRAGON IN THE WATER-WEED]
-
- [Illustration: THE DRAGON IN THE WATER-WEED
- This is the back of him, and you can see that he is covered
- with a delicate water-weed]
-
-And now for the Dragon in the Water-weed. You will not be able to make
-him out at all at first, but if you look long enough you will see his
-body which is too thick to be a piece of weed, and if you then let your
-eyes travel upwards, you will see his "mask," which is like a pair of
-folding-doors. These open and let his jaws out when he wants to use
-them. And his disguise is even more slim than that of the spider, for
-not only does he mimic the Water-weed round him--his straggly legs,
-which you should be able to make out also, help him in this--but he
-actually becomes part of his surroundings, for all over him grows a
-delicate water-weed, and when he is at the bottom of the pond, where he
-spends most of his time, he is _part_ of the bottom of the pond, and the
-creatures which he would eat walk past him carelessly. He is a wolf in
-sheep's clothing, and the sheep are water-weeds.
-
- [Illustration: THE LOBSTER MOTH CATERPILLAR
- As he looks when angry]
-
-And now for the sheep who are just as clever really as the wolves. Two
-of these are caterpillars--quite the most curious pair of caterpillars
-to be met with in this country--and the third is a sawfly. Sawflies get
-their name from having an instrument with which they can bore or saw, as
-the case may be, into leaves or trees, and this is the largest one we
-have in England.
-
-The hunter-insects, as we have seen, disguise themselves so as to get
-near their victims unawares, and the hunted disguise themselves very
-often in the same way so as to avoid being seen, but sometimes in such a
-way that if they _are_ seen they may appear to be much more terrible
-creatures than they really are. And so we have the sheep in wolves'
-clothing.
-
- [Illustration: THE ICHNEUMON FLY]
-
-The hunters of the caterpillars are the ichneumon flies. Ichneumon flies
-do not eat caterpillars but lay their eggs inside them. They have a
-special instrument for the purpose, and when the grubs hatch out they
-gradually eat away the fleshy parts of the caterpillar so that it seldom
-has strength enough to turn into a chrysalis, let alone a butterfly, or
-moth, or beetle, as the case may be. Now what is the chief enemy of a
-fly? Why, of course, a spider. If then something which dreads an
-ichneumon fly can make itself look like that fly's worst enemy, a
-spider, it will have a good chance of scoring off the fly.
-
-The Caterpillar of the Lobster Moth, of which I show you two pictures,
-can do this to a nicety. He has, as you see, an extraordinary shape for
-a caterpillar, I don't think that any other caterpillar in this country
-has the same long skinny legs--and he is able to strike extraordinary
-attitudes which make him look very spidery indeed, particularly from in
-front, for then the two little spikes at the end of his lobster body
-appear over the top of his head and look like a spider's pincers. Mother
-Nature has been very careful of her Lobster Moth caterpillar. When he is
-quite a baby he looks just like a little black ant. When he is asleep he
-folds up his legs and looks like a shrivelled beech-leaf--he usually
-feeds on beech--and, when he is attacked by an ichneumon fly (you can
-make him think he is being attacked by tickling him with a paint-brush)
-he turns himself at once into a sham spider, by throwing back his head
-as far as it will go and shuddering his skinny legs in the air.
-
- [Illustration: THE PUSS MOTH CATERPILLAR
- As he looks when angry]
-
-The Puss Moth caterpillar is almost as curious. He, too, strikes
-fearsome attitudes. He has eye-markings to help him (you will have read
-about these elsewhere) and he can also squirt out an acid from
-underneath his chin. These two defences are probably most useful against
-animals and birds and lizards and creatures of that kind, but they do
-not seem to be much use against an ichneumon fly, and so Mother Nature
-has helped him further, by giving him two little pink whiplashes, which
-shoot out from the prongs at his tail end when he is really annoyed.
-When a fly comes near him he brandishes them as you see in the picture.
-
- [Illustration: THE GIANT WOOD WASP
- It has no poisonous sting, though it looks as if it had a
- very fine one]
-
-Our last sheep is the Giant Wood Wasp, who is not a wasp at all, and is
-much more common in this country than he used to be. He is a handsome
-black and yellow insect with a body about an inch long, and his wolf's
-clothing is his black and yellow colour. This is the commonest wolf's
-clothing of all. You know I expect that a number of stinging insects,
-wasps and bees, have a black and yellow, or black and red colouring, and
-you know too, I dare say, that there are a great many flies who have no
-stings but are coloured in much the same way. Well, it is thought that
-these flies without stings, of which the Giant Wood Wasp is one, may
-sometimes avoid attack because they frighten their enemies by looking as
-if they _had_ stings. Suppose a young sparrow ate a wasp, he would
-probably get stung, and it might happen that next time he saw a black
-and yellow fly, he would mistake it for a wasp and so not eat it. If
-this _did_ happen, the fly would have owed his life to being black and
-yellow.
-
-
-
-
- THE BEASTIES' BEDTIME
- (OCTOBER)
-
-
- [Illustration: THE QUEEN WASP IN HER WINTER SLEEP
- She puts her wings _underneath_ her body, so that they
- sha'n't get damaged, and holds on chiefly with her mouth]
-
-How would you like to sleep straightaway through the winter, and miss
-Guy Fawkes, and Christmas, and New Year, and Valentine's Day, and
-skating, and snowballing, and round games in the evening, and having
-stories read to you by the fire, and all those delightful things which
-come to cheer us when the weather is damp and gloomy, making us feel
-somehow that summer is a queer, impossible kind of time, just as in
-summer we find it hard to imagine what it feels like to be really cold?
-I want you to remember in this winter which is coming what a number of
-little creatures in the wide world around you are fast, fast asleep. I
-want you to think how wonderful it is that these little creatures are
-able to dream away the time when there is nothing for them to eat, and
-to wake again when there is food in plenty.
-
- [Illustration: BILL THE LIZARD]
-
-Every year when the evenings begin to come quicker and quicker, and grow
-colder and colder, Mother Nature, who is the mother of our dear own
-mothers, puts her babies to bed at the time which she knows is best. A
-queer set of babies they are! Babies of such different kinds that it is
-a wonder she can keep them all in her head, and not have to say
-sometimes to herself: "Good gracious, I forgot my dormouse: and I don't
-believe my brown lizard was properly tucked up in the grass-tuft; and as
-for my prickly hedge-pig, I don't remember where I sent him last."
-
-But Mother Nature never does forget, and never spoils her babies. She
-whispers "bedtime," and they go.
-
-The little insects go first--the flies, and beetles, and earwigs, and
-frog-hoppers, and myriads of other tiny creatures which you can see in
-the grass on any warm day by just lying down and opening your eyes.
-
- [Illustration: TOADUMS]
-
-For all Mother Nature's care I fear that most of these die, but some may
-manage to live through the cold, and among the larger kinds of insects
-some always do. You remember what I told you about the Brimstone
-Butterfly! The Queen Wasp is another of the lucky ones.
-
-She creeps into some sheltered crevice, where she can find a shred of
-something small enough to take into her mouth. This sounds queer,
-doesn't it? I will tell you the reason. The Queen Wasp sleeps hanging by
-her jaws, and hardly trusting to her legs at all. You can see what she
-looks like in the picture, and you must notice that she has tucked her
-wings right underneath her body so that nothing can brush against them.
-
- [Illustration: ROUND EYE THE DORMOUSE]
-
-After the insects go the reptiles and the frogs. These are cold-blooded
-creatures, so they have no need to make a nest to keep them warm, but
-they don't like to be too cold, and always creep somewhere where the
-frost will not reach them. Bill the lizard sometimes goes deep down into
-a large grass-tuft, and sometimes creeps into a mouse-hole. Froggin
-dives into a pond and wriggles into the mud, or underneath a stone, and
-there sleeps under the water until the hot sunshine comes again, and he
-knows, by the feel of things, that it is time to be moving. Toadums
-prefers to sleep on land. He lies quite flat, with his hands in front of
-his eyes, and wakes up a little later than Froggin.
-
- [Illustration: THE DORMOUSE IN HIS WINTER SLEEP
- He bunches himself up so as to close all the doors that the
- air can get in by, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, everything]
-
-After these the animals. Round Eye the dormouse goes to sleep about
-November. He builds a nest of leaves and grass all around himself, and,
-if the winter is cold, sleeps straight away into April. If the winter is
-warm, however, he may wake up and eat a little food, and if he is a wise
-little mouse, as he usually is, he keeps a little store of nuts and
-seeds at hand in case he _does_ wake up. Prickles the hedge-pig does
-much the same. He has a nest which is even warmer, for, besides the
-leaves and grass which make the round of it, he rolls his spines into
-anything soft which will stick to them and so has a nice warm blanket
-next to his skin. Once he has dropped off to sleep he stays asleep till
-the spring comes. I don't think he ever wakes up like the dormouse, or
-ever makes a store of food.
-
- [Illustration: PRICKLES THE HEDGE-PIG]
-
-The only other animals which sleep the winter through in this country
-are the bats, and some of them sleep even longer than the dormouse and
-the hedge-pig; indeed, they are only awake for three or four months in
-the year. Sometimes there are crowds of them sleeping together in old
-caves, and tree trunks, and places like that, and it may be that they
-half wake up and talk to each other to pass away the time. Indeed, if
-you know their hole and can put your ear close to it, you can sometimes
-hear them talking and squabbling--faint little squabblings like the
-sound of a kettle simmering on the hob when you can just hear the tiny
-bubbles hitting each other and bursting with bad temper.
-
- [Illustration: THE HEDGE-PIG IN HIS WINTER SLEEP
- He is not so tightly coiled as when he shuts up to defend
- himself]
-
-When bats are flying about and hunting for moths they often squeak for
-joy, and then their voice is quite different. It is so high that some
-people cannot hear it at all; but you can make a noise just like it by
-striking two pennies sharply together, and if you can hear that being
-done when you are several yards away from the person who is doing it,
-you ought to be able to hear a bat squeak too.
-
- [Illustration: THE LESSER HORSESHOE BAT IN HIS WINTER SLEEP
- He is hanging head-downwards and is completely shut up in
- his own wings, which, you see, are beautifully folded]
-
-You have to watch bats very closely before you can tell one kind from
-another, and I expect some of you will be surprised to hear that there
-are more different kinds of bats in England than there are of any other
-kinds of animals. There are, at least, twelve different kinds of English
-bats, and, as bats now and then seem to get blown over the sea from
-France, or be brought in the rigging of ships, quite a strange foreign
-bat may turn up sometimes.
-
-
-
-
- THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMAEUS
- (MICHAELMAS DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration: BARTIMAEUS]
-
-Bartimaeus was simply mole-tired (which is as tired as a beastie can be),
-and he lay on his side, with his nose tucked into his waistcoat, and
-dreamed of Nydia, fretfully. Nydia was half a field away, dozing in a
-snug fortress of her own, with four fat helpless babies to attend to,
-and not a passing thought for Bartimaeus.
-
-Five times within twelve hours had Bartimaeus sought her. Five times had
-he traversed his main-line tunnel, turned eastward at the junction by
-the fence, and, breasting up the up-grade full tilt, thrust an inquiring
-nose at Nydia's nest. Why shouldn't he? Why should he stand on ceremony
-with four fat, squirmy, wrinkled, hairless infants?
-
-But Nydia had been mightily offended. Each time she had boxed his ears.
-Each time she had bitten him. And so he had retreated; not for fear, but
-for black shame--black shame which he had brought upon himself; for
-Father Moles may not approach Mole babies--that is Mole law, and that
-has been Mole law since Moles first dug.
-
-Long journeyings these to Nydia, a hundred yards each way at least, but
-not of length to tire him. He had found time and energy for in-between
-excursions. One to the mill-house orchard--there staring hillocks proved
-it; one to the sacred croquet lawn--he left his marks here also; one to
-the mid-field partridge nest, which meant one egg the less.
-
- [Illustration: HE HEADED STRAIGHT FOR WATER]
-
-A cheerful strenuous day's work; on which, but for the finish of it, he
-might have slept at ease.
-
-Nydia's last bite and buffet had been real.
-
-She swept her right hand cross-ways, baring her teeth in line with it,
-and screwing round her shoulders for the swing. Then she lunged
-backwards viciously. This meant a dragging wound which hurt, and
-Bartimaeus had bitten too, and, as ill-luck would have it, bitten a baby.
-Nydia flung at him squealing, and, when a Mother Mole flings at you
-squealing, one prudent course and only one is open.
-
-His nose was bleeding as he started home, and he was hot and thirsty. He
-headed straight for water. A ten-yard down-slant brought him to the
-brook. He drank his fill, then, tempted by the coolness, set off
-swimming. He swam as deftly as a water-shrew, high out of water, with
-his stumpy tail cocked upward in his wake.
-
- [Illustration: THE BANK ROSE STEEPLY OVER HIM]
-
-He reached the farther side without mishap, rustled the moisture off his
-fur, then started climbing. The bank rose steeply over him, but here and
-there a naked root gave hand-hold, and, shoulder-hoisted over these, he
-scrambled to the level. On this he travelled easily, using his
-paddle-hands as sweeps, and scuttling with his feet. From the brookside
-half-way across the field, and almost to the dried-up middle-ditch, bent
-grass-stems marked his trail. He checked close by the alder-stump, nosed
-at the ground, and started digging.
-
-Perhaps he scented supper.
-
-The alder-stump is populous still. Its core, now sapless, lifeless
-touchwood, is riddled through and through. Here moths-to-be, and
-flies-to-be, and beetles-to-be have spent their youth and fattened.
-Virtue still lingers in the roots, and, hidden by the forks and bends of
-them, quiet lives consume, or bide their time. Now and again a human
-hand "collects" them, now and again a mole, the skilfullest pupa hunter
-in the world.
-
-Yet Bartimaeus was not really hungry--he dug more from ill-humour,
-wrenching the grass-tufts sideways with his teeth, and slashing fiercely
-with his hands, until he forced an entrance for his shoulders.
-
-Then his whole action changed.
-
-He stabbed his nose into the soil, and, twisting from the shoulders,
-screwed it home. Then he drew back his head, turned over sideways, and,
-with one shoulder and one hand thrust out, gained purchase where his
-nose had been, and scratched at the soft earth. As one side tired he
-turned about, and thrust its fellow forward. Sometimes he lay upon his
-back, and heaved and squirmed and shuffled. Sometimes he screwed his
-way, his whole frame twisted spirally, half prostrate, half supine.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-He drove a six-inch downward slant, then, for one yard, a level course,
-then upwards half a foot again. His pink nose broke the surface crust,
-snuffed, and dropped back. The first stage was accomplished, but only
-the first stage. His tube was choked and littered end to end. He backed
-nine inches through the loose, reversed, ducked down his head, and
-charged. Part of the rubble caked as he drove past, and part was swept
-before him to the outlet. It spurted through and sprayed upon the grass.
-Six charges raised a mole hill, and left a half-yard tunnel clear. His
-hands compressed the sides of it to smoothness.
-
-He made a cave and four runs leading from it. Three plunged deep down,
-and hillocks marked their course. The fourth was near the surface. Its
-flimsy roof, pressed upwards from below, and dotted end to end with
-spits of soil, cast a betraying shadow.
-
-It was good feeding-ground. In it were worms innumerable, slow-minded
-worms which held their ground too long, and footless leathern-coated
-grubs, grubs of beetles and flies, and eggs innumerable, grasshoppers'
-eggs, earwigs' eggs, and eggs of smaller fry, some massed in sticky
-clutches, some dispersed.
-
-He toiled and fed alternately. He made a nest inside his cave, a mass of
-leaves and grasses dragged down into his surface run (to thrust his
-mouth out was sufficient), and pulled or pushed into their proper
-station.
-
-This done he slept, his head tucked down between his hands, his hind
-feet curled up under him.
-
-All but his ears slept soundly.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-_One-Two--One-Two--One-Two._ Twin footfalls almost over him, and with
-them a soliloquy deep-toned.
-
-"Comin' right down valley they be. That's them water-works. Down goes
-springs. Up comes nunkey-tumps. I'll get this one for sure. Here!
-Tatters!"
-
-Out like a loosened spring leapt Bartimaeus, and plunged into his surface
-run. Half-way along it he stopped dead and listened, the tip of his pink
-nose thrust through the roof.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Man's booted tread he knew full well; man's voice he knew, but something
-else was coming,--something which lilted pit-a-pat, something with
-yielding velvet pads, something four-footed. It danced towards him,
-louder still and louder, till a hoarse whisper checked it. "Steady you
-fool! Here good dog! Steady!"
-
-The pink nose dropped. Only one grass-blade stirred, but Tatters saw it.
-
-His every muscle tautened as he pointed. His hair stood stiff upon his
-back, his eyes stared fixedly.
-
- [Illustration: ONLY ONE GRASS-BLADE STIRRED, BUT TATTERS SAW IT]
-
-For half a minute he stood tense; then Bartimaeus breathed, and at his
-breath a grass-stem twitched and flickered.
-
-Tatters upreared and poised himself, stayed poised a moment, then, with
-a vicious dropping lunge, stabbed with his forefeet downward. His muzzle
-followed instantly, and screwed and ploughed along the run until the
-weight of roof upcurled checked further progress.
-
-Then only did he raise his head and look back shamefaced at his master.
-He had completely missed.
-
-"Tatters, you'm grown old, I reckon--like your Master. Never mind, lad,
-we'll have 'im yet. We'll put a trap down tea-time. Come off it now!
-Think you can scratch him out?"
-
-Tatters was burrowing tooth and nail, uprooting grass clumps with his
-teeth, drumming with his forefeet, and showering sods between his hind
-feet backwards. He raised a wistful, mud-stained face and whined, shook
-himself doubtfully, started, turned back for one more scratch, then
-galloped to his master's call.
-
-And Bartimaeus had been burrowing too--opening a bolt-hole which should
-close behind him, passing the dislodged earth beneath himself, and
-piling it to cover his retreat.
-
-Tatters had all but pinned his body, and that would have meant death to
-him. Tatters _had_ pinned his tail, but, with a wriggle, he had freed
-himself, out-distanced the pursuing nose, dived through the nest, and
-twisting sharply right, reached the west outlet shaft. Fist over feet he
-scuttled down and screwed himself into the blinded end. He bored two
-yards zigzagging, then paused for breath. He pricked his stumpy whiskers
-up, starred the grey fur about his eyes, spread wide his pinhole ears.
-He was quite safe. The ground before, behind, and on all sides of him,
-was dead. Ten minutes passed before he moved, then he worked quickly
-upwards, and broke the ground beneath a clump of thistles.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"They've gone," said a small piping voice above him.
-
-The nose of Bartimaeus, pink and quivery, had issued first, his bullet
-head had followed, then his great hands and shoulders. The sunbeams
-played upon his coat, and waves of limpid shimmery blue crept softly to
-and fro in it.
-
-"They've gone," the Harvest Mouse repeated.
-
-"Excellent!" said Bartimaeus. "I can't see who I am talking to--this
-awful glare!--but it will pass--and meanwhile I can guess at you. You
-are a mouse; a small mouse, with sharp-pointed toes, a blunted tail, and
-a warm-orange coat."
-
-"How did you know that?" said the Harvest Mouse.
-
-"I heard you, and I felt you, and I smelt you," said Bartimaeus. "You ran
-up just before I put my nose out. I heard your tail flick after you. I
-heard the leaves crack underneath your feet. I felt and smelt your
-colour. If you lived underground like me, you'd notice things."
-
-"Give me the sunshine," said the Harvest Mouse (its beauty doubled on
-her coat). "If you could see what I can see you'd go back home."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"How's that?" said Bartimaeus.
-
-"It's near the fence," the Harvest Mouse replied, "you'd better run and
-look at it."
-
-"It would take a lot to scare _me_," said Bartimaeus, and puffed his
-little chest out. His chest was like the mouse's back, warm orange.
-
-"This will scare you," she said. "You strike from here towards the sun
-and you can't miss it. It throws a shadow at you."
-
-"I'm off," said Bartimaeus, and straightway started burrowing.
-
-The Harvest Mouse stood up full length, and watched his ripple fading
-into distance. Then she dropped down to earth.
-
-"That was a quite nice Mole," she said, "it really _is_ a pity."
-
-A surface run is child's play to a Mole. He bores it almost at his
-surface pace. The roof springs ready-moulded from his back, and
-lengthens like a paid-out rope behind him.
-
-The fence was reached so suddenly that Bartimaeus stubbed his nose
-against it. He bit and tore it, thinking it was root, then, finding it
-too hard for him--it was red teak--worked ten yards back and thrust his
-head and shoulders above ground.
-
- [Illustration: THE HARVEST MOUSE STOOD UP FULL LENGTH]
-
-The sun was low behind the fence. The shadow of it lengthened out
-towards him and, in between its clefts, crept dazzling gold-red rays.
-For full ten minutes Bartimaeus' head swayed nodding side to side. Now
-and again he twitched one hand impatiently. He fought for a clear
-vision. Each time he faced the dazzling streams of light, his head fell
-worsted sideways, and minutes passed before he could look up again.
-
-At last their brilliance faded, and, somewhat to the right of him, a
-stunted bush took shape.
-
-The stem of it loomed dark in the fence shadow; the leaves were darker
-still--and there was something queer about the leaves. They were too
-large, too black, too solid.
-
-The breeze could hardly stir them, and, when they stirred, it was as
-though they spun.
-
-No more could be determined certainly. He left his run bent on a closer
-vision.
-
-It was no bush at all. It was a thick-stemmed alder-branch staked in the
-soil. The leaves were moles--moles like himself, or rather moles which
-had been like himself. For all were dead. Their bodies dangled
-pitifully, or, with poor shrivelled outstretched hands, spun as the
-breeze compelled them.
-
-It was too much for Bartimaeus' nerves. He turned about and fled, crashed
-luckily through his own tunnel's roof, and ran as though mole-ghosts
-were at his heels.
-
-And something ran ahead of him, and reached the thistle half a yard in
-front.
-
- [Illustration: THE HARVEST MOUSE DREW HERSELF UP INDIGNANT]
-
-"Did you find it?" said the Harvest Mouse. She sat at her old station
-nibbling.
-
-"You beast," said Bartimaeus, "you heartless little beast."
-
-The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant.
-
-"You're blinder than I thought," she said.
-
-"It was a mean trick," muttered Bartimaeus.
-
-"It was a good turn," said the Harvest Mouse.
-
-"Now listen, for I know this meadow end to end. It is no place for
-Moles. Ask the red-coated Meadow Mouse. Ask the Pygmy Shrew. Ask any one
-who really knows. Worse things than dogs come into it."
-
- [Illustration: "WEASELS!" SAID THE MEADOW MOUSE]
-
-"Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse. "Oh, never wait for weasels in a run.
-I really thought that you were one behind me." This to Bartimaeus.
-
-"Cats!" said the Pygmy Shrew. Vainly did Bartimaeus strive to see her--a
-sorrel leaf concealed her, head to tail.
-
-"Worse than dogs. Worse than weasels. Worse than cats," said the Harvest
-Mouse. "TRAPS!"
-
-"We Harvest Mice are never trapped, and stump-tail mice are only trapped
-by chance--or their own folly. I saw one once. He walked inside because
-it rained in torrents. Down went the door, and he was drowned, with
-cheese afloat all round him."
-
-"Cheese is good," said the Meadow Mouse.
-
-"Cheese is glorious," said the Pygmy Shrew.
-
-"There you are. You'd go anywhere for cheese," said the Harvest Mouse.
-"One bite--a snap behind--and then where are you?"
-
-"I'm out in front," said the Pygmy Shrew.
-
-"You'll try that once too often," said the Harvest Mouse.
-
-"Now I hate cheese--the smell of it spells danger. But there are traps
-and traps--and the worst traps are traps with nothing in them."
-
-"That's so," said the Meadow Mouse.
-
-"You can smell them, can't you?" said Bartimaeus.
-
-"You can smell them if you go slow enough," said the Harvest Mouse, "but
-when do _you_ go slow? Now mark my words. It's just about your sleeping
-time. You'll sleep for your full hour, then you'll wake hungry. You'll
-rush full tilt until you reach your slant. You'll rush down that, you'll
-rush along your gallery. _Won't_ you now?"
-
-"P'raps," muttered Bartimaeus. He had withdrawn his nose below, and sleep
-was stealing over him.
-
-"Well, don't!" said the Harvest Mouse.
-
-"Don't!" said the Meadow Mouse.
-
-"Don't!" said the Pygmy.
-
-"Don't what?" said Bartimaeus in his sleep.
-
-"Don't rush!" said the Harvest Mouse. "Don't rush. Don't rush!"
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-He slept for his full hour and woke to find the Pygmy at his side. "It's
-in your centre gallery," she whispered. "I've slipped right through it
-twice."
-
-"My _centre_ gallery?" shouted Bartimaeus. "My _centre_ gallery? I'll
-have my centre gallery clear."
-
-He started burrowing straightway.
-
-"Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind. "Don't rush! It's death to
-rush!"
-
-And yet it was his rush that saved him.
-
- [Illustration: "DON'T RUSH!" THE PYGMY SCREAMED BEHIND]
-
-The crumbled earth which still lay in the bolt-hole, melted before it.
-Part slipped to either side of him. Part massed before his plunging
-head, and, reaching the clear downshaft, dropped. With it there dropped
-a stone--a rounded half-inch stone, which danced along the gallery at
-the foot, cannoned from side to side of it, spun round and pulled up
-short, six inches in advance of him. His senses signalled something in
-his path. His senses signalled a clear passage through it, and a clear
-space beyond it. His senses urged more pace. So he crashed on. He
-stubbed his hands against a ring of iron: the ring gave way: there was a
-snap and two iron jaws had gripped his waist. But for the stone which
-jammed against the clinch of them, he must have met his death. And death
-itself had scarcely brought more torture. It was as though the half of
-him sped on while half remained behind. The back wrench left him
-senseless, and so the Pygmy found him. It was the pit-pat of her on his
-fur, the cobweb flutter of her questionings, which roused him back to
-life.
-
- [Illustration: HIS FORTRESS, HIS OWN FORTRESS, HAD BEEN BREACHED]
-
-"I'm done," he muttered, "done as sure as sure."
-
-"Not you!" she answered bravely, "the trap's not closed--not half.
-_Wriggle_, dear Uncle, _wriggle_!"
-
-And Bartimaeus wriggled.
-
-He wriggled right; he wriggled left; he wriggled up; he wriggled down;
-he brought his hands to bear upon the iron and with a supreme twist he
-wriggled free.
-
-Then he saw red.
-
-He flung himself against the trap, and bit at it, and scratched at it,
-and shook it with his shoulders, and heaved and strained and wrenched at
-it, until it lay upturned upon the surface. He was convulsed with windy
-gusts of rage: nose-tip to tail he boiled; nor did he gain composure
-until the field was far behind, and he had reached the smooth-faced tube
-which led to his own fortress. Hand over foot he sped the length of it,
-dived down the U-shaped entrance hole, bobbed up again and climbed into
-his nest.
-
-His troubles were not over.
-
-His fortress, his own fortress, had been breached. The nest lay open to
-the day, windswept.
-
-For a full hour he toiled repairing it, then, mole-tired, coiled to
-sleep.
-
-
-
-
- SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMAELEON
- (NOVEMBER)
-
-  "''Tis green! 'tis green, Sir, I assure ye.'
-  'Green!' cries the other in a fury.
-  'Why, Sir, d'ye think I've lost my eyes?'
-  ''Twere no great loss,' the friend replies,
-  'For if they always serve you thus,
-  'You'll find them but of little use.'"
-
-
-I wonder how many of you know these lines? Not so very long ago most
-young people used to have to learn the poem from which they are taken,
-but I don't think the poem can be quite such a favourite as it used to
-be. Perhaps we are all getting to be such good naturalists that we know
-it is not quite true, for, though Chamaeleons change their colours in a
-very wonderful way, they do not go red, white, and blue, in the way
-which the poem makes out.
-
-I think I must tell you a little story about a Chamaeleon, though some of
-you may perhaps have heard it before. An old lady once had a pet
-Chamaeleon which she was very fond of, and which her manservant, John,
-used to look after. He was very fond of the Chamaeleon too, and he used
-to amuse himself by putting it on to different coloured things in his
-room and watching it change colour. Well, one day, the old lady had a
-friend to tea, and she thought she would like to show her the Chamaeleon,
-so she rang for John.
-
-"John," she said, "bring in the Chamaeleon."
-
-John looked very sorry for himself. "Please ma'am," he said, "I can't."
-
-"Can't?" said his mistress. "Why not?"
-
-John looked still more confused. "Please, ma'am," he said, "he's gone."
-
-"Why, how is that?" said the lady.
-
-"Well, ma'am, I was playing with him, and I put him against my baize
-apron, and he turned green."
-
-"Well?"
-
-"And then I put him against the red tray, ma'am, and he turned red."
-
-"Yes, yes! Of course he would."
-
-"And then I put him against your tartan plaid, ma'am, and--_and he just
-bust hisself_."
-
- [Illustration: YOU CAN SEE HIS EYE LOOKING BACK OVER
- HIS SHOULDER IN THIS PICTURE]
-
-I am afraid that that story is not altogether true either.
-
-I must try to explain to you how a Chamaeleon changes colour. Of course
-you all know that there are black men, and brown men, and
-copper-coloured men, and yellow men, and what we call white men; and you
-know, too, that among white men some have much darker skins than others.
-
-Now the colour of people depends a little on the colour of their blood,
-for there is a network of tiny veins in the lower part of their skin,
-but it depends even more on millions of little specks of yellowish and
-brownish paint which lie in the upper part of their skin. A negro may be
-as black as your hat outside, but his blood is red all the same, and he
-looks black because the little specks of paint in the upper part of his
-skin are very dark and hide the red blood behind them. When people
-change colour it is because for one cause or another the colour of their
-blood can be more plainly, or less plainly, seen; and, when this cause
-is taken away, their old colour returns, for the little specks of paint
-have not altered in themselves at all.
-
- [Illustration: YOU CAN SEE HIS HANDS AND FEET WELL IN
- THIS PICTURE]
-
-In Chamaeleons, however, and several other creatures, which change colour
-much more than we do, and keep their changed colour for quite a long
-time, the specks of paint lie in the _lower_ part of the skin, and often
-there are numbers of them clustered together as if they had been pressed
-down tight into little bags. These clusters of paint specks have the
-power of branching out like sea anemones, and afterwards pulling
-themselves together again like sea anemones when they are frightened.
-When they are spread out so as to be as large as possible, the Chamaeleon
-is dark-coloured; and when they are drawn in so as to be as small as
-possible, the Chamaeleon is light coloured; and when, as is really most
-usual, they are spread out in one part of his body and drawn in in
-another, the Chamaeleon is piebald. I expect you will be curious to know
-what colour the specks of paint are, and whether they are always the
-same. They are so small that one needs a powerful microscope to see
-them; but, as far as we can tell, they are always brownish or reddish,
-so that the greens and blues which are often to be seen in patches on a
-Chamaeleon have to be accounted for in some other way. It would take too
-long to explain the blues and greens to you thoroughly, but I think I
-can give you one little hint about them. You all know what
-mother-of-pearl looks like. If you hold a piece one way it seems a dull
-grey all over, but if you hold it another you see all the colours of the
-rainbow, and you can even make the colours move about it if you handle
-it properly. Now if the colours were paint they would not move about,
-though they might not be so bright in some positions as in others, and
-for the present you must be satisfied to know that a Chamaeleon skin,
-besides holding clusters of paint-specks which change their shape, is so
-wonderfully made that it can show mother-of-pearl colours as well.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-A grown-up Chamaeleon is usually greenish in the daytime, with brown
-patches on his sides. When he goes to sleep at night he turns
-cream-coloured and his patches become yellowish. A baby Chamaeleon is
-snowy white, and doesn't get spotted even when he is angry or excited,
-as a grown-up Chamaeleon always does.
-
-Now for the Chamaeleon pictures. First you must notice his eyes. He has
-enormous eyeballs, but instead of having two eyelids to each, as we
-have, he has one eyelid to each (it is really made up of two stuck
-together), with a tiny round hole in the centre for his eye to look
-through. This is queer enough, but there is something even queerer about
-a Chamaeleon's eyes. He can move either eyeball up or down or sideways,
-but he hardly ever moves both the same way, so that he has quite the
-most wonderful squint in the world, and often keeps one eye looking over
-his shoulder while the other looks straight in front of him.
-
-Next you must look at his long, skinny arms and legs, and especially at
-his hands and feet. Like ourselves he has five fingers or toes on each,
-but they are differently arranged from ours. You must remember, of
-course, that our thumbs are really fingers. On each hand a Chamaeleon has
-three thumbs and two fingers, and on each foot he has two great toes and
-three ordinary toes.
-
-
-
-
- THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS
- (DECEMBER)
-
-
- [Illustration:
- Top Row     Nuts gnawed by Meadow Mice
- Second Row   "     "     " Dormice
- Third Row    "     "     " Field Mice]
-
-I am going to end the articles in this book by telling you how you may
-best see for yourselves some of the queer creatures which I have
-photographed, for the real beasties are far, far more interesting than
-any photographs of them can be, and they are not so very difficult to
-see if only you go the right way about it. I think the Winter is as good
-a season as any to begin in, at any rate with the fur-folk, for there is
-sure to be plenty of mud, which is a splendid thing for footprints to
-show up on, and there may be a fall of snow, which will tell you more in
-a day of the coming and goings of your little brothers, than you could
-learn without it in a year.
-
-If you put on your thickest boots and go out into the fields and along
-the hedgerows, after a heavy snowfall, you will find thousands and
-thousands of footprints. Most of these will be the footprints of birds,
-but some, you will see at once, belong to four-footed creatures. I am
-showing you pictures of some of the commonest of these so that you may
-know them the next time you see them. I have left out Bunny-Rabbit on
-purpose, because I think you will be able to find out what his curious
-footprints are like for yourselves, and will remember them better that
-way.
-
- [Illustration: THE WEASEL'S TRAIL]
-
-We will begin with the Weasel's trail in the picture on the opposite
-page. You will see that there are two different looking trails showing,
-but they both belong to the same weasel. The reason they look so
-different is that one set are fresh and the other set are a day old.
-There has been a slight thaw, and this has melted the snow so that the
-oldest trail has fallen in a little. All the trails lead to a woodpile,
-and I used, after the snow had all gone, to go to that woodpile in the
-evening and wait for the weasel to come out, and watch him play, which
-he always did for some time before he started hunting.
-
- [Illustration: WHERE THE WEASEL MET THE MICE
- The mice had made quite a beaten track from one hole to
- another--this you can see at the top of the picture. The
- other tracks are the weasel's, except one, which shows the
- imprint of a mouse-tail]
-
-It was quite exciting to follow that little Weasel's trail in the snow.
-I came to where he had startled a moor-hen and to where he had startled
-a rook, and to where he had had a splendid game chasing mice. I am
-showing you a picture of this, and you will notice at once the line down
-the centre of one of the tracks, which is made by Mousey's tail. Another
-of the pictures shows you two mouse-tracks running to separate
-mouse-holes, which I was very glad to know about, and which I don't
-think I should ever have seen but for the tell-tale snow. A Rat's track
-is much the same, only larger; and a Stoat's track is the same as a
-Weasel's, only larger. A Hedgehog does not often come out in the snow,
-but he does sometimes and leaves a very smudgy track behind him, for he
-drags his fur along the ground.
-
- [Illustration: WHERE THE WEASEL MET THE ROOK
- You can see where the Rook's wing hit the snow]
-
-Snow shows one much more than mud, but, unless it is of just the right
-softness the prints in it are apt to be splodgy, and I don't think you
-ever get so perfect a track in snow as you sometimes do in mud. The
-pictures of the Vixen's and the Otter's footprints will show you what I
-mean. A Vixen's footprints are smaller than a Fox's, and a Fox's
-footprints are smaller than most people think, indeed a Fox is a smaller
-animal than most people think. I have a little wire-haired terrier whose
-footprints are much larger than those of a Vixen. At the same time it is
-not very easy to distinguish a Fox's track from that of a small dog.
-Generally a Dog's claws make their mark as well as the pads, and this
-does not often happen with the Fox; but I think a better way of telling
-the difference is to remember that a Fox's pads are more oval-shaped
-than a Dog's. You will always, I think, be able to tell an Otter's
-footprints (some people call them the Otter's seal) by their size, and
-by their leading to or from the water. Usually the claws can be clearly
-traced and sometimes the webbing of the feet as well. I have never seen
-clean-cut Badger's footprints--all I have met with have been very broad
-and splodgy, more smears than patterns--and I have never seen a Marten's
-trail at all.
-
- [Illustration: TWO MOUSE TRAILS LEADING TO HOLES IN THE
- SNOW]
-
- [Illustration: THE FOX'S FOOTPRINTS]
-
-Footprints tell us a good deal of what is going on about us, and so do
-"runs" in the grass, and "runs" in the hedges. But, of course, there are
-other things to be looked for. Often one finds the remains of beasties'
-meals, nuts for instance. Nuts with clean-cut round holes in them have
-been gnawed by Dormice, nuts with jagged holes by Red Meadow Mice and
-Wood Mice, nuts split clean in half most likely by Squirrels. Otters
-leave half-eaten fish about sometimes, and scattered broken eggshells
-tell you where Stoats have been running the hedgerow. If you notice
-where you find these things and keep your eyes open, you are sure in
-time to see what you are looking for.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- [Illustration: And the last thing that Winnie remembers was
- the Great Green Grasshopper's Wife hurrying the little
- Skipjacks off to bed.]
-
- THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND
- (CHRISTMAS DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"I beg your pardon!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-
-"I think I ought to beg yours," said Winnie politely.
-
-Perhaps, however, you would like me to begin at the very beginning. Very
-well, then; but you must remember that, for most of it, I can only tell
-you what Winnie told me. It all seems to have happened between Christmas
-Eve and Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, our Cricket, who lives in the
-kitchen behind the hot-water pipes, had started chirruping as usual, and
-I had gone into the library, and hunted out an old, old Christmas book
-and started reading to my small friends a story which began with a
-cricket singing against a tea-kettle. Then we had had a snapdragon, and
-then the waits had come round, so everything had been as Christmassy as
-ever it could be. Just as the waits finished Winnie had got into bed and
-snuggled herself up. All this I can vouch for myself, for I was there
-all the time, and I can remember how good the snapdragon was, though I
-did not eat quite so many raisins as one little girl. However, as she
-said afterwards, "Even if I did eat thirty, Father, it was quite worth
-it."
-
-So much for the true part of the tale--now for the magic. Winnie tells
-me that she never went to sleep at all! The waits and the cricket and
-the snapdragon and the kettle were all mixed up in her head, and the
-snapdragon had turned hungry and was trying to snap up the waits, and
-the kettle was puffing like a little traction engine, and in between the
-puffs there was a sad little chirrupy sound which she thought must be
-the cricket. It seemed only kind then that she should slip out of bed,
-listen on the landing, and creep down to the kitchen to see how the
-cricket was getting on. She found him sitting on the hearthstone and
-watching the people in the fire going to church.
-
- [Illustration: WINNIE TELLS ME THAT SHE NEVER WENT TO
- SLEEP AT ALL!]
-
-"I can't attend to you now," he said, "I'm just going out."
-
-Winnie had half expected him to speak, but she was a little frightened
-all the same, and a little curious too.
-
-"Do take me with you," she said. "Where are you going?"
-
-"Where am I going?" said the Cricket in a surprised tone. "Why, it's
-Christmas Eve!"
-
-"Yes, isn't it lovely!" said Winnie; "and to-morrow there'll be
-presents. But where are you going?"
-
-"I'm going to be a wait, of course," said the Cricket. "I've been
-practising all the evening. Listen!"
-
-He ducked his head and lifted up his wings, and a chirrup fluttered out
-of them and ran all round the dresser. It _was_ a chirrup! It wriggled
-in between the plates and dived into the soup-tureen, and climbed the
-tea-cup handles, and danced upon the saucers, until the sour deal
-boards, which had had all the softness scrubbed out of them (and were
-cross-grained to begin with), felt little thrills of pleasure running
-down their backs. Then it climbed up the wall and rattled the
-dish-covers, and at last it died away with a little squeak inside the
-coffee-pot.
-
-"What do you think of that?" said the Cricket triumphantly.
-
-"It's beautiful," said Winnie; "but where are you going?"
-
-"You'll see presently," said the Cricket; "and I wish you wouldn't
-chatter so. You nearly made me forget him."
-
- [Illustration: THE CRICKET WAS SITTING ON THE
- HEARTHSTONE WATCHING THE PEOPLE IN THE FIRE GOING TO
- CHURCH]
-
-"Forget who?" said Winnie.
-
-"Our drummer," said the Cricket. "Keep still--I heard him a minute ago."
-
-There was a long pause--so long that Winnie almost screamed, for there
-was nothing but the clock-tick to listen to.
-
-Then something joined the clock-tick--_One-two-three-four, pit-tip,
-tip-pit, one-two-three-four, pat-tap, tap-pat_ (just like soldiers a
-long way off, as Winnie explained), and presently the drummer himself
-appeared. He was a very small, squat, round-shouldered beetle, and he
-came out of a hole in the beam which ran across the ceiling.
-
- [Illustration: THE PAIR OF THEM DROPPED ... ON TO THE
- EDGE OF THE KITCHEN TABLE]
-
-"What a nuisance it all is!" he yawned. "I was just going off to sleep
-when I heard you. Is there no one else who can drum?"
-
-"No one who can drum like you," said the Cricket, which is far the best
-way to answer these questions.
-
-"Very well," said the Beetle, "but my wife must come too," and the pair
-of them dropped with two little flops on to the edge of the kitchen
-table. Then the clock chimed in--_one-two-three-four_, right away up to
-eleven.
-
-"Shall _I_ come too?" said a mean little oily voice from under the
-coal-scuttle. Winnie could just see the Cockroach's whiskers making
-quivery passes in the air, and she sat down and drew her nightie round
-her feet as tight as ever she could. She was quite relieved to hear the
-Cricket's answer.
-
-"Of course not," he said; "you never played anything in your life."
-
-"It's all the same to me," said the Cockroach. "I've given up those
-silly meadows long ago. Good-night, lunatics!" and he drew his whiskers
-in and disappeared.
-
-"Was that eleven?" said the House Cricket, taking no notice of his
-rudeness. "We've no time to lose then. Come along!"
-
-Winnie climbed up on his back as if it were the most natural thing in
-the world, and the two Beetles climbed up behind her. The drummer Beetle
-started playing at once--_one-two-three-four, pit-tip, tip-pit;
-one-two-three-four, pat-tap, tap-pat_--and the whole four of them sailed
-up the chimney. It was not hot (as Winnie explained), for the fire had
-burnt very low and that was what had beaten the kettle, but it _was_
-sooty, and she remembers quite well longing to see the clean, white snow
-on the roof. The Cricket went up crab-wise--a little jump to one side
-and a little jump to the other; so he took quite a long time to reach
-the chimney-pot, and when he crawled on to the edge of it the snow was
-all gone. ("That was the queerest thing of all, Father," said Winnie
-"there were leaves and flowers and sunshine, and it was just like
-summer.")
-
-"Now hold tight," said the Cricket, "while I unpack my wings."
-
- [Illustration]
-
-This was quite a long business, for the Cricket had to keep moistening
-his fingers, and Winnie and the Beetles had to keep crawling up and down
-his back, so as not to be in the way. At last everything was ready, and
-the Cricket poised himself on the edge of the chimney, spread his wings
-wide apart, and slid into the air. Winnie was just a little frightened
-at first, and she put her head down close to the Cricket's neck and shut
-her eyes and dug her fingers into the chinks of his back; but presently
-she felt that it was no good being frightened, for they were going quite
-smoothly, and the Cricket's wing-covers were high up on either side of
-her, so that she could hardly have fallen off if she had tried to. Soon
-she felt brave enough to raise her head very carefully and look about
-her. The kitchen chimney was some way behind, the great elm on her left,
-and the river close in front. Just before they reached the river the
-Cricket's wings buzzed like blue-bottles, and she felt they were going
-upwards. Then came another long, gentle glide, and the Cricket landed on
-the blackberry hedge at the bottom of the meadow.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-"You must all get off here," he said.
-
-Winnie stepped off his back on to a slippery thorn, missed her footing,
-and fell on the top of the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-
-"I beg your pardon!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-
-"I think I ought to beg yours," said Winnie politely--which is where the
-story began some time ago.
-
- [Illustration: "I BEG YOUR PARDON," SAID THE GREAT
- GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S WIFE]
-
-The Great Green Grasshopper's wife was more amused than offended.
-
-"Don't mention it," she said. "I suppose you've come to help us, and I'm
-very glad to see you. It is really most unfortunate, but I couldn't
-possibly let my husband come--the first Christmas Eve he has missed for
-years--but, as I said to him, 'If your leg's frostbitten, you're much
-better in your hole.' Don't you agree with me?"
-
-"Oh, yes, I think so," said Winnie, who felt she must say something.
-
-"Of course we shall miss him very much," said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife, "but if the Field Cricket isn't too nervous, I dare
-say we shall pull through. I see you have brought our drummer with you,
-and here is the Mole Cricket coming up, and the Wood Cricket, and I saw
-the Bush-cheeps a moment ago. Do you really mean to tell me that you
-have never met any of them? Then I must introduce you. This is the Mole
-Cricket. You can't ever mistake him if you have once seen his feet; and
-this is the Field Cricket--you can't mistake a blackamoor like him
-either; and this is the Wood Cricket with the check trowsers; and the
-Bush-cheep always wears a brown tail-coat and a greeny waistcoat. Now
-you all know each other and we must get to work. What do you play?"
-
-Winnie had been getting a little uneasy all this time, for the Crickets
-had been unpacking their instruments and making little scrapes just like
-the band before the pantomime, and she had felt that she would be
-expected to do something too, and had made up her mind as to what she
-would say if she were asked.
-
-"I can play a grass-blade a little," she said.
-
-"Well, there's lots of grass about," said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife. "Let's hear you do it."
-
-So Winnie picked a big blade of grass and jammed it tight between the
-balls of her thumbs and pressed her lips hard against it and began to
-play. The first note sent the Great Green Grasshopper's wife's hind legs
-straight up in the air, turned the Mole Cricket and the House Cricket
-and the Wood Cricket and the Bush-cheeps head-over-heels, and drove the
-Field Cricket into his hole.
-
-"Easy, easy!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "You nearly blew
-my tail off. Can't you play more softly?"
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS THE MOLE CRICKET]
-
-"I'll try," said Winnie.
-
-"Please do," said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "There, I knew
-what would happen. See what you've done."
-
- [Illustration: THIS IS THE FIELD CRICKET]
-
-The Field Cricket had all but disappeared, and there were only two
-little black legs sticking out of his hole.
-
-"It's no use your trying to play in there," said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife. "Nobody will hear you at all."
-
-"I can't help it," said the Field Cricket; "my nerves are completely
-upset."
-
-"See what you've done," said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife again.
-"It will take him twenty minutes to recover."
-
-And she was quite right. For twenty long minutes they had to wait and
-look at one another, and even at the end of that time the Field Cricket
-still seemed very shaken.
-
-"I will do my best now," he said at last, "but I simply _must_ have my
-head hidden." He had backed out of his hole a little way and lifted up
-his wing-covers. Every now and then he chirruped softly.
-
- [Illustration: AND THIS IS THE WOOD CRICKET]
-
-"Well, it's better than nothing," said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife, "and you certainly have some excuse this time. Now let's begin."
-She climbed a little higher in the hedge, tapped sharply with one hind
-leg, and looked about her.
-
-"Are you all ready?" she said. "Drums?"
-
-"Here!" said the Beetles.
-
-"First violin?"
-
-"Here!" said the Field Cricket.
-
-"Second violin?"
-
-"Here!" said the House Cricket.
-
-"Viola?"
-
-"Here!" said the Wood Cricket.
-
-"'Cello?"
-
-"Here!" said the Mole Cricket.
-
-"Flutes?"
-
-"Here!" said the Bush-cheeps.
-
-"Grass-blade?"
-
-"Here!" said Winnie, screwing her lips up very tight.
-
-"Good!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife, and she reared herself
-up backwards and began to beat time with her hind legs.
-
-"Two bars first," she said. "Now!"
-
-At the third bar they all came in very fairly together, but before they
-had played half a minute the Great Green Grasshopper's wife stopped
-short.
-
-("It was really worse than the real waits," Winnie explained. "It was
-like a million little glass stoppers being squeaked out of bottles--and
-they didn't seem to mind the time a bit.")
-
-The Great Green Grasshopper's wife looked at Winnie quite severely.
-
-"I asked you to play softly," she said; "you're drowning the whole band."
-
- [Illustration: THE FIRST NOTE SENT THE GREAT GREEN
- GRASSHOPPER'S WIFE'S HIND LEGS STRAIGHT UP IN THE AIR]
-
-"I _can't_ play more softly than that," said Winnie.
-
-"Well, there's only one thing to be done then," said the Great Green
-Grasshopper's wife. "I must hunt up the Skipjacks."
-
-The Skipjacks are the little grasshoppers who live in the fields, and it
-takes quite a number of them to play a tune that you can hear.
-
- [Illustration: HE HAD BACKED OUT OF HIS HOLE A LITTLE
- WAY AND LIFTED UP HIS WING-COVERS]
-
-"Wait for me here," said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife; "I sha'n't
-be long!" And she leapt like a jump-jim-crow and landed three yards
-clear of the hedge.
-
-She really was some time away, but at last she reappeared driving the
-Skipjacks in front of her.
-
-"It is so troublesome to keep them straight," she explained; "the little
-idiots! Look at them."
-
- [Illustration: THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S WIFE
- REARED HERSELF UP BACKWARDS AND BEGAN TO BEAT TIME WITH HER
- HIND LEGS]
-
-They certainly were a queer flock to manage, for they could only move by
-jumps, and when they jumped even they themselves had no idea of where
-they were jumping to. However, by driving them in front of her she
-managed to keep a few of them together, and at last she got them into
-their places.
-
-"You must fiddle," she said, "as you never fiddled before. The band
-shall _not_ be beaten by a grass-blade. Now altogether--_one, two,
-three, four_!"
-
-It was really much better that time, and though Winnie could not pick up
-the tune, everybody else seemed quite pleased with themselves.
-
-"_That's_ better!" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "Now again!"
-
-But before the words were out of her mouth the great hall clock chimed
-in, _Ting--Ting--Ting--Ting_----
-
-"Midnight!" screamed the Great Green Grasshopper's wife. "What _will_
-become of us?"
-
-_Ting--Ting--Ting--Ting_----
-
-"It's fast!" cried Winnie: "I know it's fast. I put it on myself for
-getting up tomorrow."
-
-"Are you quite sure?" said the Great Green Grasshopper's wife.
-
-"Quite sure," declared Winnie; "it's five minutes fast at least."
-
-"That's a great relief to my mind," said the Great Green Grasshopper's
-wife; "but, of course, we must stop at once."
-
-Indeed, the Crickets were already packing up their instruments, and the
-last thing that Winnie remembers was the Great Green Grasshopper's wife
-hurrying the little Skipjacks off to bed.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
- THE PYGMY SHREW
- (BOXING-DAY)
-
-
- [Illustration]
-
-Few know him and the careless eye may never see him. He is so
-small,--that four of him just stop a mouse-hole; so light,--that ten of
-him just tilt an ounce. Yet, if you search the files, you find him
-eminent. The Pygmy Shrew in Cornwall! The Pygmy Shrew in Kent!! The
-Pygmy Shrew in Rutlandshire!!!
-
-Thus fame is garlanded round mystery.
-
-Man's kingdom is brick-built and parchment guarded. The beasties have a
-nobler heritage. Fence your broad acres as you please, yet they shall
-quietly share them, paying you naught, and taking what they will. Water
-and air and land are theirs by prior, nay primeval, right. So shall you
-bend before their quality, and, for their lineage, you shall respect
-them.
-
-Something had brushed across the Pygmy's nose. He shook off three days'
-sleep in three half-seconds. Where was his tail? Sleeping, he swings it
-up across his face, and gathers all four feet within its shelter. His
-tail was there, but in its waking-place, behind him. Then something must
-have moved it. He stretched his neck and sniffed, long wheezy sniffs
-which ended in a shiver; then he peered down the shaft. He jerked back
-to avoid an avalanche--a blinding dust-cloud, a rattle of small stones,
-and, in the midst, two common shrews close locked.
-
-But I go on too fast.
-
-The stump is close against the rookery-fence. It is a stump of quality,
-a residential stump, a maze of winding roots and secret chambers,
-wherein field-folk may live without acquaintance. There is a fellow to
-it in the meadow, another fronts the rabbit mound, and all three hold
-like tenants.
-
-The woodmouse first, round-eyed and debonair; then the bank-vole, he who
-is half a mouse, with chestnut coat, broad ear and estimable tail;
-lastly the ranny-noses; the common shrew--a velvet-coated
-pepper-tempered gallant; the Pygmy, who is common shrew refined--purple
-and orange ripple in his fur, and him my Lady Sunshine loves the best of
-all.
-
- [Illustration: THE WOODMOUSE FIRST, ROUND-EYED AND
- DEBONAIR]
-
-All live together, yet apart, for, under ground, the stumps are
-intricate. The roots twist right and left and back upon themselves, and,
-over and beneath them, are the runs. Most are blind alleys, but a few
-creep on, and strike the upper air. The mice and voles reserve the
-lowest depths; they must be near the water; moreover they can tunnel
-where they will. The common shrews live higher, scratch two-inch levels
-where the rootlets aid them, and trust to their quick ears. The Pygmy
-takes what stouter beasties leave; and that is how the Pygmy's tail was
-moved--his sleeping-hole, the mould of some long-fallen stone, abutted
-on the shaft.
-
-That two shrews should be fighting was quite usual. Shrews fight to keep
-their limbs in trim; they fight in play; they fight in deadly earnest. A
-veteran shrew is scarred in every part of him; great scars like
-thumbmarks, where new growth of fur has failed to draw up level with the
-old.
-
-Yet even shrews need open ground to fight on. The Pygmy waited till the
-dust had cleared, then peered into the darkness. The scuffling of them
-could be plainly heard; and, sharp above it, rose their vicious war
-scream. The Pygmy knew what that meant--a bolt for upper air and honest
-fighting. He crouched back prudently. They rattled past once more in
-quick succession, the foremost gibbering his distress, the hindmost
-dumb. But this was dubious measure of their quality, for, where there is
-bare tunnel-room for one, one needs must be in front, and, then, his
-only weapon is his voice.
-
- [Illustration: HE TOOK THE RIGHT-HAND SURFACE-RUN]
-
-The Pygmy sprang up after them. He is the burrows' jackal, and takes an
-interest in serious fights. Once on the level ground he paused, made
-three small casts, then took the right-hand surface-run.
-
-He was quite right; the combatants had passed that way. It was a zigzag
-run, but unimpeded. A drooping grass-stem tangle formed its roof, and,
-through long use, its sides were brown and withered, as though some
-noxious snake had glided through, and poisoned every growing blade it
-touched. The Pygmy knew it end to end, and knew that, where it broke,
-close to the elm, there was a moss-grown clearing. So he took matters
-quietly, and, lingering as the fancy took him, had supped before he
-reached the fighting-ground. The common shrews were feinting for an
-opening. He knew them both by sight. One, a brown-coated, thick-set
-scaramouch was neighbour to him in the stump. The other was a
-meadow-shrew, of lighter build and colour, but longer and full match in
-weight. The Pygmy rubbed his nose between his paws--a pretty fight was
-promised.
-
- [Illustration: HE COULD SEE AS WELL AS HEAR]
-
-And others seemed to have got wind of it. The grass-stems flicking to
-and fro betrayed them. On every side he heard short, fluttery
-mouse-steps. Above he caught shrill squeaks and whimperings; a bat was
-busy with the filmy moths. Below the ground seemed shivery--that was the
-mole. The Pygmy heard and scented him. He crawled discreetly up the
-trunk, and so could see as well as hear. In the green tangle round were
-flitting specks--the voles and mice assembling in hot haste. From these
-his eye passed to the combatants. The grey shrew's ear was torn, and
-from it hung one drop of blood. This was the lodestone.
-
- [Illustration: HIS RIVAL, FEINTING, FLICKED HIS TAIL
- TOO FAR, AND, IN A TWINKLE, IT WAS SEIZED]
-
-Up from a moss-clump shot a woodmouse nose, and, at the back of it, two
-round black eyes looked murder. The Pygmy caught the chatter-grince of
-teeth; the bat still threaded needle-notes among the leaves; the leaves
-themselves were whispering; but clear above these short, crabbed,
-fretful sounds, he heard the steady rumble of the mole. The thing
-perplexed him. Could the expectant ring of mice be deaf? The pair that
-held the stage were too absorbed to notice anything.
-
- [Illustration: THE GREY SHREW LEANT AGAINST THE TRUNK AND PANTED
- The brown shrew lay half sideways fronting him]
-
-It was the brown shrew who got home the first. His rival, feinting,
-flicked his tail too far, and, in a twinkle, it was seized. The grey
-shrew swung himself upon his back, and kicked with all four paws. But
-this was waste of strength. The shrewmouse has forked teeth, teeth that
-will hold a slippery rounded beetle, much more a soft square tail. So
-with necessity the spur of valour, he twisted round and nipped the brown
-shrew's foot. Both straightway bit their hardest; the twinge made both
-give way. They toppled backwards squealing. The grey shrew leant against
-the trunk and panted; the brown shrew lay half sideways fronting him,
-and, on all sides, the ring broke into chatterings. The Pygmy, trembling
-with delight, screamed out encouragement, but no one heard _his_
-screams. The bat dived headlong from the leaves, skimmed in between them
-and shot up once more. The woodmouse crept two paces forward, then
-backed abruptly, for they were at grips. Each nipped a loose flap of the
-other's skin, and, bracing all four feet, tugged at its prize. They
-tugged until they toppled sideways; then with claws fastened in each
-other's fur, with tangled tails and rounded straining bodies, commenced
-to spin.
-
- [Illustration: WITH TANGLED TAILS AND ROUNDED STRAINING
- BODIES, COMMENCED TO SPIN]
-
-That is the way of shrewmice, much pother and slight wounds. Their
-fights are seldom mortal. Rather, they die for want of fighting. Their
-valiant souls misfit them.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-So this hot-blooded, strenuous pair spun as one living ball across the
-ring, over and over, twist and twirl, upside and down, faster and
-faster, until the spin itself released them. Then they sat back from one
-another and wobbled like spent tops.
-
- [Illustration]
-
- [Illustration]
-
- [Illustration: THEN THEY LAY HEAD TO TAIL, AND TAIL TO
- HEAD]
-
-The third round started dully. The brown shrew, shaken with exertion,
-lay on his back the better to refresh himself. The grey shrew, just as
-weary, crept to an eminence above and eyed him wickedly. The ring was
-all impatience.
-
-Both soon revived.
-
- [Illustration: THE FIELD-VOLES ON THE SKIRTS OF IT
- COULD ONLY SEE BETWEEN THEIR BETTERS' EARS]
-
-The brown shrew twisted corkscrew-wise, and landed arched upon his toe
-points. The grey shrew shot beneath him like a whiplash. Then they lay
-head to tail, and tail to head. The ring drew closer. The field-voles on
-the skirts of it could only see between their betters' ears. The bat
-came to a halt and stared. The Pygmy climbed two inches up, and was
-rewarded. For now both combatants saw red.
-
- [Illustration: THE BAT CAME TO A HALT AND STARED]
-
-They hurled themselves at random, they bit at random, they bucked and
-somersaulted, they spun entwined in loops and twists, in double-knotted
-tangles, in sinuous figures of eight. Now one was on his back and now
-the other--shrewmice reck little which way up they fight. Now they sped
-screaming up the trunk and all but reached the Pygmy; now they dropped
-earthward with twin thud, and grazed a red vole's nose. So without pause
-or respite. They tore and scratched and gripped and pulled and wrenched
-and tugged and jumped and squealed until----it was an earthquake, a
-rounded dull upheaval, a split and crackle of the moss, a sputter of dry
-dust, and, in the midst, like some queer fungus growth, the mole's red
-nose.
-
- [Illustration: THE PYGMY CLIMBED TWO INCHES UP]
-
-"Flick!" went a woodmouse tail, betokening danger. The amphitheatre
-emptied in a moment; voles helter-skelter into cover, bat loose into the
-sky. The Pygmy tumbled earthwards, shot forward, paused, whisked up
-again, and crept behind a flake of bark.
-
- [Illustration: NOW ONE WAS ON HIS BACK AND NOW THE
- OTHER]
-
-The two shrews lay amazed upon their backs, and in between them wagged
-the intruding nose.
-
-Slowly it lengthened. Two naked paddle-feet passed on the surface, and,
-like some clumsy fish that quits its element, the mole plunged into air.
-
-He missed both shrews, who, dashing right and left of him, entangled him
-in double-minded purpose. Rested the Pygmy, shrunk to a rigid wisp of
-apprehension, ear-straining, muscle-tautened, behind a flimsy screen of
-bark.
-
-The mole lurched slowly forward, swaying his noddle-head from side to
-side, nosing each inch of ground. Blood had enticed him upwards, and
-blood he meant to taste. It seemed as though short measure must content
-him--a smear upon a grass stem, a drop upon a pebble. But presently his
-nose flung up; on either side of it the velvet starred, leaving two
-loop-holes for his pin-head eyes; he snuffed and peered about him; his
-brush-tail jerked and quivered; a snarl laid bare his teeth; and then,
-his instinct mastering circumstance, he charged, with swift alternate
-strokes, straight at the Pygmy's shelter. Had his eye seen? Had his nose
-smelt? At least he had a visible allurement--a half inch of the Pygmy's
-tail. The Pygmy curled it promptly, but, even as it moved, the mole was
-thundering at the bark. The Pygmy squeezed himself a half inch further,
-and this half inch meant life. The mole had bored his snout into the
-breach, and by a forward wriggle brought his teeth to bear.
-
- [Illustration: THE MOLE PLUNGED INTO THE AIR]
-
-The outworks broke and crumbled like a biscuit. His nose attained the
-citadel itself, but here the assault was checked. Strain as he would he
-could not get fair tooth-hold, for, working upwards in cramped quarters,
-he spent his strength in struggling for a purchase.
-
-Only exhaustion stays the hunting mole, and such exhaustion ends in
-death. This mole was not exhausted yet.
-
-He screwed his nose unceasingly, forced his teeth forward line by line,
-and ground the bark to powder; snatched out his head for air, and thrust
-his hand in place of it; snatched back his hand and used his jaws once
-more. Harder and harder still he worked, closer and closer still he
-drew, until one claw touched fur.
-
-It was a graze, a skin scrape; the fur shrank out of reach, but the mere
-contact goaded him to frenzy.
-
-He squirmed and writhed and strained until, by muscle strength alone, he
-forced his head and shoulders through the gap. His nose now touched his
-quarry, his hands were squared beneath his chin, palms back, and thus,
-in earth, he might have tunnelled far. But the stiff shell of bark was
-obdurate.
-
-The white owl helped him out. She caught him at the bottom of her swoop,
-and loosed him high up on the elm-tree. Here the white owlets welcomed
-him.
-
-Before she turned, the Pygmy had reached home.
-
- [Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-      *      *      *      *      *      *
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber's note:
-
-Apparent typographical errors have been corrected.
-
-Inconsistencies in the use of hyphens have been retained.
-
-
-
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