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diff --git a/old/55097.txt b/old/55097.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 29ff20f..0000000 --- a/old/55097.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -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 - - Small capitals have been replaced by full capitals.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. - - - -***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF NIMBLE BEASTS*** - - -******* This file should be named 55097.txt or 55097.zip ******* - - -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: -http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/5/5/0/9/55097 - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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