210 NEIGHBOURS UNKNOWN 



of the dyke, and alighting from time to 

 time to stab savagely with their dagger- 

 like beaks. 



The big brown marsh-mouse, wise with 

 experience and many escapes, took this all 

 in as he mounted the slope of the dyke. 

 Marking a hawk just above him, he doubled 

 nimbly back, jumping over half a dozen 

 blindly blundering fugitives. Some ten feet 

 further along he again ascended. As he 

 came over the crest, in a mob of shrews and 

 smaller mice, he saw a glossy crow just 

 dropping upon him. The eyes of the crow, 

 impish and malevolent, were fixed not upon 

 him, but upon a small shrew close at his side. 

 Imagining himself, however, the object of 

 attack, the brown mouse fell into a rage. 

 Darting upward, he fixed his long teeth in 

 the black marauder's thigh, just above the 

 leg joint, and pulled him down into the 

 scurrying stream of rodents. With a squeak 

 of rage and alarm, the crow struck out 

 savagely. His murderous beak stabbed this 

 way and that in the crowd, laying out more 

 than one soft-bodied victim, while his strong 

 black wings beat others into confusion and 

 panic. But in the throng swarming over 

 the dyke at that point were many more of 

 the marsh-mice and the shrews, all savage in 



