THE TUNNEL RUNNERS 203 



muzzle, with nostrils dilating and quivering, 

 interrogated the perilous outer air ; the bead 

 eyes searched the sky, the grass-fringe, the 

 baking open of the flat. There was no danger 

 in sight ; but just in front, some five or six 

 feet distant, a gaudy caterpillar on some bold 

 venture bent was making his slow way across 

 the scurfed mud, from one goose-tongue tuft 

 to another. 



The pointed head shot swiftly forth from 

 the tunnel, followed by a ruddy brown body 

 straight out across the bright naked space, 

 and back again, like a darting shuttle, into 

 the hole, and the too rashly adventuring 

 caterpillar had disappeared. 



A little way back from the edge of the 

 flats a mottled brown marsh-hawk was flying 

 hither and thither. His wings were shorter 

 and broader than those of most members 

 of his swift marauding race, and he flew 

 flapping almost like a crow, instead of gliding, 

 skimming, and soaring, after the manner of 

 his more aristocratic kindred. He flew close 

 above the swaying grass-tops, his head thrust 

 downward, and his hard unwinking eyes 

 peered fiercely down between the ranked 

 coarse stems of the " broad-leaf " grass. He 

 quartered the meadow section by section, 

 closely and methodically as a well-handled 



