WHERE GRASS IS GREEN. 173 



Then when some of the men of the estate went 

 there to do some ferreting, out bolted the lot and 

 went back to their first earth. They have left it 

 now ; for after they are able to eat meat without 

 help, their mother takes them out in the open 

 that is, they make a place to curl up in whilst 

 they are receiving instructions in the art of thieving 

 and killing from the vixen. 



Here they will be in clover for a time ; but cub- 

 hunting is drawing near, and that lot of young foxes 

 will soon have to make use of the instinct of self- 

 preservation so largely developed in their family. 



Even the fawn and white coloured field-mouse, 

 or garden - mouse as he is very properly called, 

 must need leave his sheltered domain and make 

 his nest on the edge of the road. Sixteen men 

 passed over that little creature's nest morning and 

 evening without trampling on it. If I had not 

 seen one of the young ones, in the old one's ab- 

 sence, come out of it for a walk, I should never have 

 suspected it was there. It was a most clever struc- 

 ture, its very exposed situation being its chief safe- 

 guard. 



