WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



false one it will in a few minutes sit up and 

 wash its face (for, like so many other mice and 

 voles, it is a most clean and particular little 

 creature, and always washes itself after a 

 fright), and then goes on nibbling once more. 

 It is an enormous eater, constantly nibbling at 

 something, and, being found from the mountain 

 tops to the seashore, can do much damage when 

 its numbers get too great. What it prefers is 

 the delicate white parts of the grass stems, 

 generally leaving the coarse green tops to dry 

 up and afford shelter over the runs. The 

 alarm being over, the inhabitants of the holes 

 will come scuttling out, hurrying along the 

 runs to spots where the food is good, where 

 the grass is luscious and soft, not hard and 

 coarse, and then they set to work, nibble, 

 nibble, nibble all the time. One foolish young 

 vole pushes its head up and out through the 

 covering grass so as to get a peep at the great 

 wide world that lies so fair in the sunshine, 

 but it does not see a small black speck high up 

 against the blue of the sky indeed it has no 

 time ! Down like a thunder-bolt falls the 

 kestrel, who has been hovering up aloft, and 

 watching the meadow for some such move- 

 ment in the grass. There is a thump, a 

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