182 JCTLY 



his ruddy back and rosy grey breast, posing as the 

 model breadwinner of a blameless family. There is 

 something ominous though in his mien ; although 

 no larger than a nightingale, he is very powerfully 

 built, with solid shoulders, sitting low and mute on 

 his perch. There is, too, a suggestion of the execu- 

 tioner in the singular black mask drawn across his 

 eyes and forehead to the ear coverts. This is the 

 second season that a pair of these shrikes have 

 reared their young in this brake, and last year 

 careful and repeated search failed to disclose their 

 larder. This year, however, perseverance has been 

 rewarded by its discovery in the recesses of a black- 

 thorn thicket on the edge of the pit. The p&ee de 

 resistance in the store was the mangled carcase of a 

 field-vole or long-tailed mouse (it was too much 

 decomposed to tell which), wound tightly among 

 the thorns. 



LVII 



Of all the dogs which have suffered from our 



Rats, Mice, ma li ce i n giving them bad names, none 



and Voles j^s ^ QQU mQTQ un f a i r iy treated than the 



water-rat. He owes a grudge to Nature, too, for 

 bestowing on him the garb and mien of the criminal 



