. The story of hedgerow and pond . afterwards the mouses long tail isleft hanging out of the corner of theowlets beak, as if it were smoking a longpipe. You see, there isnt room forsuch a long mouthful all at once. Thetail will be slowly and gradually stowed66 /^^^ Hedgerow Life ^^ ^, ^ .^ away and the bird be quite game enoughto tackle another before morninof. It is to be hoped that the variouswild creatures in the countryside—thebirds, beasts, insects, and reptiles—dontfeel the pain and the fear which weshould feel. For they nearly all dependupon killing and eating somethingweaker than thems
. The story of hedgerow and pond . afterwards the mouses long tail isleft hanging out of the corner of theowlets beak, as if it were smoking a longpipe. You see, there isnt room forsuch a long mouthful all at once. Thetail will be slowly and gradually stowed66 /^^^ Hedgerow Life ^^ ^, ^ .^ away and the bird be quite game enoughto tackle another before morninof. It is to be hoped that the variouswild creatures in the countryside—thebirds, beasts, insects, and reptiles—dontfeel the pain and the fear which weshould feel. For they nearly all dependupon killing and eating somethingweaker than themselves, and they intheir turn are always liable to bedevoured by something stronger thanthemselves. And there is no end to thisstate of things ; by night as well as byday the constant and unending strifegoes on between the different membersof the animal and insect world. Eachand all of them try to put off the evilday as long as possible, and each onehas its own ways of evading capture foritself and of obtaining its own food ;67. Hedgerow Life but, put it off as they may, for all thesmaller ones, at any rate, the end mustcome some day. The chase or the sud-den capture, a squeal or a flutter, and onemore wild thing has gone the same wayas all its ancestors before it. The bank here, where the ground issandy, is quite honeycombed with rabbit-holes, and their runs can be seen fromone to the other, and for long distancesout into the fields—regular pathways, asplain and well defined as a path can the bunnies run about and playand feed. For they are funny, playfullittle creatures, fond of running afterone another, and playing leap-frog, orsome such game. There isnt one tobe seen, but there are dozens in theirunderground retreats waiting for us topass. Our footsteps betrayed our ap-68 J j-y;mx>-ims^-:
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectwat
