204 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



setter. Once he dropped straight downward 

 into the grass abruptly, as if he had been 

 shot ; and when, an instant later, he arose 

 again, with a great buffeting of the grass- 

 tops, he was clutching some tiny grey object 

 in his talons. Had one been near enough to 

 see, it would have proved, probably, to be a 

 young shrew. Whatever it was, it was too 

 small to be worth carrying off to his high 

 perch on the dead pine tree beyond the ridge 

 of the uplands. He flew with it to the open 

 crest of the dyke close by, where he devoured 

 it in savage gulps. Then, having wiped his 

 beak on the hard sod, he dropped off the 

 dyke and resumed his assiduous quartering 

 of the salt-grass. 



About this time the little brown, pointed 

 head with the bead eyes reappeared in the 

 mouth of the tunnel by the foot of the post. 

 Everything seemed safe. The samphire and 

 the grass-tongue tufts, palely glimmering in 

 the sun, were full of salt-loving, heat-loving 

 insects. Warily the ruddy-brown body be- 

 hind the pointed head slipped forth from 

 the tunnel, and darted to the nearest tuft, 

 where it began nosing sharply and snapping 

 up small game. 



The marsh-mouse was a sturdy figure, 

 about six inches in length, with a dull chest- 



