Part 3

PICTURES ON BUTTER-FLIES' WINGS The Magpie Moth 171 The Emperor Moth 173 The Elephant Hawk Moth's Caterpillar 174 The Elephant Hawk Moth showing his Trunk 175 The Peacock Butterfly 176 The Mother Shipton Moth 177

A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE The Common Shrewmouse 181 The Water Shrewmouse 183 The Pygmy Shrewmouse 184 How the Pygmy Coils Himself Up to Sleep 185

IN WEASEL WOOD Again the Fox Cub was Puzzled 188 He Sank from his Hindquarters forward 191 The Stoat Tiptoed Towards Him 193 "My Plumed Tail! you wait till Squirrel grows" 195 Marten has seen you 197 "Perhaps you will be good enough to get higher up the tree" 201 It was another Badger 207 She came out full charge 209 And in due course of time, his wife 210

SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING The Lobster Moth Caterpillar 213 The Spider on the Bramble Blossom 217 The Dragon in the Water-weed 219 The Lobster Moth Caterpillar, Angry 220 The Ichneumon Fly 221 The Puss Moth Caterpillar 223 The Giant Wood Wasp 225

THE BEASTIES' BEDTIME The Queen Wasp in her Winter Sleep 227 Bill the Lizard 228 Toadums 229 Round Eye the Dormouse 230 Dormouse in his Winter Sleep 231 Prickles the Hedge Pig 233 The Hedge Pig in his Winter Sleep 234 Lesser Horseshoe Bat Asleep 235

THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS Bartimæus 237 He Headed Straight for the Water 239 The Bank Rose Steeply Over Him 241 Only one grass-blade stirred, but Tatters saw it 246 The Harvest Mouse stood up full length 251 The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant 253 "Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse 254 "Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind 257 His fortress, his own fortress had been breached 258

SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON You can see his eye looking back over his shoulder 263 You can see his hands and feet 264 The Chamæleon 267

THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS Nuts Gnawed by Mice 269 The Weasel's Trail 271 Where the Weasel met the Mice 272 Where the Weasel met the Rook 274 Two Mouse Trails 275 The Fox's Footprints 276

THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND She Never went to Sleep at all 281 The Cricket was Sitting on the Hearthstone 283 The pair of them dropped 284 "I beg your pardon," said the Grasshopper's Wife 288 The Mole Cricket 291 The Field Cricket 292 The Wood Cricket 293 The First Note sent the Grasshopper's Wife's hind legs straight up 295 He had backed out of his hole 296 The Grasshopper's Wife reared herself up 297

THE PYGMY SHREW The Woodmouse First 303 He took the Right-hand Surface run 305 He could now see and hear as well 306 His rival feinting, flicked his tail 308 The Grey Shrew Leant against the Trunk 309 With Tangled Tails and Rounded Straining Bodies 310 There they lay head to tail 311 The Field Voles 312 The Bat came to a halt and stared 313 The Pygmy climbed two inches up 314 Now one was on his back, now the other 315 The Mole plunged into the air 317

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The publisher may, perhaps, be allowed to call the reader's attention to the illustrations--particularly to the two of the Sand-Wasps, reproduced in colour. The difficulties of photographing from wild life active creatures of such small dimensions as hymenopterous insects are very great from an optical standpoint. The picture of Spinipes bringing the beetle grub to her tube took several years to accomplish successfully, and the strain involved by the conditions, a blazing June sun on the operator's back, an uncertain foothold, and the necessity of keeping the attention riveted for hours on one particular patch of sunlit sand, was exceptional. It is of course possible, probable even, that with the introduction of an improved lens system, which will enable fast exposures to be made at very short range on minute moving objects, this particular picture may be repeated and improved upon. But the odds against the second picture on the same page, that of Spinipes stinging the jewel-fly, ever being repeated, are enormous. It will be necessary in order to secure the repetition of such a picture, first, that the camera shall be focussed on one out of a score of tubes; second, that the parasitic jewel-fly shall enter that particular tube; third, that the Owner Wasp shall return while the jewel-fly is below; fourth, that the Owner Wasp shall pull the jewel-fly to the surface; fifth, that the jewel-fly shall cling to the rim of the tube; sixth, that the Wasp shall sting it in this position--it will be noticed that the sting is directed at the junction of the thorax and abdomen; seventh, that the observer shall be ready to expose his plate at the exact psychological moment; and eighth, that he shall succeed in doing so. The first six conditions were, in Mr. English's case, fulfilled by chance. As regards the seventh he was unready. He was, in fact, some feet below his camera. But chance befriended him still further.

He caught the jewel-fly's glint, and caught the shadow of the returning Wasp. He flung his arm up, grabbed the dangling bulb, and pressed at random. This action dragged the camera from its moorings--to fix a camera on a Sand Cliff's side is no slight task--and it fell twelve feet down. Yet it had done its work and made the picture.

There are a score of pictures in this book, which are believed to be unique, not only by reason of the rarity of their subjects, but also by reason of the fact that they are the only pictures of such subjects, good or bad, in existence. The most remarkable among them is the picture of Spinipes stinging the jewel-fly.

INTRODUCTION

I know a Boy Scout who has never seen a weasel. Many weasels, I fancy, must have seen that Boy Scout.

And I know a Girl who has never seen a Harvest Mouse, but who might have, often.

There may be other boys and girls like these. There may be grown-ups also.

It is for them that I have written this book. It is to them that I offer its pictures.

I would lead them (with hushed voices and quiet feet) into God's Under-World; a World of queer small happenings; of sparkling eyes and vanishing tails; a whispering, rustling World.

I would have them, whatever their age be, approach this World as children. For children's eyes are closest to the ground.

DOUGLAS ENGLISH HAWLEY, DARTFORD, 1910

SOMETHING ABOUT BATS (JANUARY)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.