WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



broke the side of it away, so that she could 

 step straight out. The young ones must have 

 stepped out too, for in the morning not a trace 

 of them was left ! I could only imagine that, 

 having crawled out of their nursery and 

 wandered about until they became cold and 

 unconscious, their mother had fallen upon 

 them and eaten them. At any rate there was 

 not a trace of any sort left. 



Older families have done well with me. 

 I had one that consisted of a mother and two 

 little ones. The latter were about a quarter 

 the size of their parent, and really very sweet 

 little creatures. They were quite old enough 

 to be able to roll up if they wanted to, but 

 they had not yet learnt fear, and while their 

 mother would curl up for nothing at all, they 

 never attempted to. They would let me pick 

 them up, stroke their soft grey throats, and 

 seemed to enjoy being petted. As soon as they 

 were put down they would run to and fro on 

 the grass; indeed their activity made it very 

 difficult to get a good photograph of the family. 

 As fast as one was put in the right place the 

 other had run away, and as for getting a picture 

 of the two babies with their mother unrolled 

 it was simply impossible. However, the trouble 

 234. 



