AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



a pin's head, he runs grave, though perhaps to him 

 unimaginable, risks by tunnelling almost in view of fox, 

 weasel, badger, heron or owl, and the human mole- 

 catcher. 



MOLES of Devon have another foe to fear in the buz- 

 zard, a past-master of mole-catching arts. 

 Mole Sitting in his patient way on a tree or stone 



Catchers hedge, the buzzard will watch the work- 

 ings of a mole as it tunnels in a field, until 

 the deadly pounce can be made. A Devon mole-catcher 

 showed the writer a cream-coloured specimen, whose 

 pelt he hoped to make into a purse, and sell for a 

 sovereign. He had never heard the statement made in 

 the " Philosopher's Banquet," published 1633, that 

 water in which moles are boiled will turn any .black 

 thing white, and expressed some doubt of its truth. 



IT is the time of year when a gardener, putting things 



to rights, encounters under some old 



The flower-pot the beetle called devil's coach - 



Devil's horse, from its fleetness, diabolical aspect, 



Coach- threatening attitudes, and jet-black livery. 



horse Its distinctive mannerism is the turning 



over of its tail-end for the neat folding of 



beautiful long wings beneath short cases. It would rank 



as a gardener's ally, if he believed it fed on slugs and 



insect larvae. Its weapons of defence are its jaws and 



its glands, which shoot out a secretion of such evil 



odour that a wise bird leaves it alone in disgust, whence 



the name, olens. It is an insect skunk. 



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