OF HARTING. 249 



of which, not having been secured to the originator by 

 registration, may fairly be considered public property, 

 we therefore feel at liberty to make it more generally 

 known. In the absence of dogs and ferrets, they 

 pressed into their service a species of crab which they 

 found plentifully on the beach. Provided with a 

 number of these unpromising animals, they sought the 

 rabbit burrows and, by means of a lump of clay, or a 

 spot of tallow, they affixed to the back of each crab 

 an inch or so of candle-end, the bits of candle were 

 then lighted and. the astonished crabs turned into the 

 burrows. As may be anticipated, the progress of the 

 unwilling torch-bearers soon produced a startling effect 

 on the rabbits they scampered away in all directions, 

 and in their endeavours to escape from the general 

 illumination at their several " bolt-holes," fell an easy 

 prey to their captors.* 



The pretty little Dormouse (Muscardinus avel- 

 lanarius) is tolerably common in our copses, and is 

 probably the best known of our smaller Mammalia, it 

 is so frequently kept as a pet. In its wild state it 

 is wonderfully active among the branches and twigs 

 of the underwood in which it resides, and we often 

 meet with its well-built nest, round as a ball, in low 

 thick bushes, and occasionally in a fork of a young 

 hazel, five or six feet from the ground, in the covers 

 and hedgerows. We have also met with their 

 young in the early summer months, and again as late 

 as October, so that they probably have more than one 

 brood in a season. Nuts, when they can be obtained, 

 are a favorite article of diet with the Dormouse ; but 

 when its -winter store of these and other fruits and 

 seeds is exhausted, it necessarily has recourse to other 

 kinds of food, and one of its dainties in season at this 

 time, consists of small bird's eggs " au nattirel" In 

 the beginning of June '71, a nest of the common wren, 



* This was written in 1866. 



