sruvr 



UNLIKE the birds, who for the most part retire to rest at 

 nightfall, some of them even before the sun goes down, 

 the beasts that figure on our scanty list are mostly 

 lovers of the dark. We may indeed find, at any hour, a 

 squirrel in the tree-tops ; and the shrews, although they 

 love the twilight, are heard all day in the wood and 

 hedgerow. But the stoat and weasel hide under cover 

 of the night their deeds of darkness. It is only in the 

 gloaming that the otter is out by the river. It is when 

 all is still that the fox levies blackmail upon the poultry- 

 yard, sometimes slaughtering, as if from mere lust of 

 murder, ten times as much as he can carry off. Even 

 the tall red deer comes out of the forest at the dead of 

 night to plunder the garden of the cottager, or to make 

 havoc of the springing corn. 



These are figures familiar more or less to many 

 dwellers in the country. But there is another night- 

 rover who, though more plentiful than the otter, and 



