HARVEST-TIDE 



give her cubs their evening hour of play. Their play is 

 one of the prettiest of all wild animal pictures we may 

 hope to see. The pool is rippled all over as the otters 

 dart about the surface, and running swirls show where 

 their smooth, dark bodies are flashing beneath, to rise 

 and leap and frolic, and then float downstream con- 

 tentedly, with the tips of their rudders just above 

 water. The mother shows them how to dive in circles, 

 so as to come up behind sleeping fish. After their play, 

 the party heads downstream for the feeding-place. 



HARVEST-TIDE 



THERE are divers little pictures of corn-harvesting seen 

 only when evening peace has settled over 

 The Fox in the fields. One is that of rabbits stealing 

 the Corn out of the standing corn, in a field partly 

 reaped, for an evening meal and gambol. 

 Suddenly a quiet observer may note that every rabbit 

 of one side of the crop has bolted back to cover ; on the 

 other side some are sitting up to listen. Nothing un- 

 usual is to be heard ; but just within the jungle of the 

 stems is an ominous red-brown shadow. A fox is 

 working through the corn, up -wind. When only a few 

 stalks separate him from the nearest rabbit, perhaps 

 three yards away, he crouches for his spring. He may 

 not take the near rabbit ; but we may be sure the one 

 taken out of scores is the one he fancies most for supper. 



THE corn-bunting comes to the fore with harvesting, 

 and once again we are impressed by his singular 



103 



