AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



Coast who, on a frosty winter's night, marks, at an 

 immense distance, the wild rushing of the wings 

 of the wigeon, with which mingles the beautiful 

 " whee-ou " whistle, a music which comes and goes 

 like the wind as the company sweeps by, on its multi- 

 tudinous wings, wheels, retires, and comes again. In 

 mid- Winter, wigeon feed at night, resting by day on 

 the sea. Some old flight-shooters say that wigeon- 

 shooting is like fox-hunting for excitement. Un- 

 doubtedly the birds are good eating. 



DECEMBER CHARACTERS 



THE pygmy shrew, that Tom Thumb of mammals, 

 must have a brave heart to come abroad, 

 Midget as he will, in sharp frost, and one wonders 

 Mammals what insects he can find to eat, worms or 

 small snails ; by day the midget hunter is in 

 peril from weasels and by night from owls. No doubt a 

 long spell of frost sends him into a sleep from which 

 there may be no wakening. The water-shrew also may 

 be noted running among the stalactites on the banks of 

 an ice-bound stream, or swimming in the icy water, the 

 black velvety coat turned to a silvery streak, glimmering, 

 as if beset with pearls, by the air bubbles it holds. In 

 the water he is as dry as a duck, and may prove a dainty 

 tit-bit for a starving pike. 



THE water-shrew is at once our most timid and, for his 



size, most ferocious animal, a very gallant 



An fighter. So timid he is that a passing shadow 



Angler's will send him (like a wheatear) scurrying to 



Friend the burrow; but he seems to be short- 



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