Part 3

THE VALLEY OF OLWEN.

The last of winter's stores--Renewed activity--The field-vole's food--A lively widow vole--An unequal encounter--First fond passion--Ominous sounds--A clumsy rabbit--An unimportant "affair"--An elopement--Nesting time--A fussy parent--A fox pays a visit--Also a carrion crow--Repairing damages 151-166

III.

A BARREN HILLSIDE.

A secluded pasture--Poachers and owls--An astute magpie--The vole a sire of many families--Plague--Nature's caprice--Privation and disease--Unexpected destroyers--A living skeleton--Starvation and death--An owl once more 167-175

THE FOX.

THE LAST HUNT.

A baffled marauder--The flesh of breeding creatures tough and tasteless--An unsavoury rat--The arrival of the Hunt--The fox sees his foes--The view-halloo--No respite, no mercy, no sanctuary--The last hope--A fearless vixen--Defiant to the end 177-193

II.

A NEW HOME.

Life in an artificial "earth"--Longing and despair--Contentment of maternity--Prisoners--A way of escape--Careless infancy--A precocious cub--First lessons--An obedient family--A fox's smile--Inborn passion for flesh--Favourite food of fox-cubs--The huntsman's desire 194-209

III.

THE CUB AND THE POLECAT.

Patience and watchfulness--How to capture field-voles--Winding trails--Ill-luck--A painful surprise--A fresh line of scent--Cost of a struggle--A luckless fortnight--The old hound and the "young entry"--A curiously shaped monster--Pursued by a lurcher-- Desertion--A vagrant bachelor 210-223

IV.

A CRY OF THE NIGHT.

The hunting call--A recollection--A joyous greeting--A woodland bride--The sting of a wasp--Preparation of a "breeding earth"--Meddlesome jays and magpies--A rocky fastness on the wild west coast--Vulp's retreat--The end of a long life--The fox's mask--Memories 224-240

THE BROWN HARE.

THE UPLAND CORNFIELD.

Midsummer--The leveret's birth--First wanderings--Instinct and teaching--The "creeps"--In the stubble--Habits change with seasons--The "sweet joint" of the rye--Lessons from a net and a lurcher--Rough methods--The man-scent--On the hills above the river-mists 241-260

II.

MARCH MADNESS.

March winds--Reckless jack-hares--Courtship and rivalry--Motherhood--A harmless conflict--An intruding fox--The faithless lover--Maternal courage--The falcon's "stoop"--The "slit-eared" hare--Countryside superstitions--On the river island--Patience rewarded--The hare as a swimmer--Bloodless sport--Habits of the hare in wet weather--The "form" in the root-field--Bereavements--Increasing caution-- Productiveness in relation to food--A poacher's ruse 261-277

III.

THE CHASE.

The basset-hound--Mirthful and dignified--A method of protecting hares--A suggestion--Formidable foes--"Fouling" the scent--A cry of distress--The home in the snow-drift--The renegade cat--An inoffensive life--A devastating storm 278-291

THE BADGER.

A WOODLAND SOLITUDE.