WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



There was at least half a dozen naked blind 

 pink babies in it. They might have been a 

 day old but were certainly not more, for the 

 wee mites were only about half an inch long. 

 If they were left where they were they would 

 certainly be killed, as they were right in the 

 track of the men and wagons that kept going 

 backwards and forwards, so I picked up the 

 nest and family and took them all home, 

 thinking that if I gave them a comfortable 

 place to live in they would be all right and 

 that I should see how baby voles were brought 

 up. It was a glass-fronted cage that I put 

 them into, so, having provided everything that 

 they could possibly want, grass, lettuce leaves, 

 water, and even a wisp of hay to make some 

 fresh dry bedding, I sat down some way off 

 to watch what the mother would do. First 

 of all she washed herself carefully, then she 

 went to the nest, in which the little ones were 

 lying quite quiet and still, pushed aside the finely 

 shredded soft covering and pulled out one of 

 the babies. Before you could guess what was 

 going to happen, she had given it a sharp bite 

 and killed it. She murdered them all ! 



What made her do it ? Was it to save them 

 from an unknown fate ? Or was it wild fear 

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