GRIMALKIN THE CAT 153 
but even in that brief space he had time to remark 
that its tail was not carried in the usual jaunty 
rabbit manner, but was depressed like that of a 
hare. 
That was the first time that Grimalkin met the 
Collared Buck rabbit of upper Knockdane. The 
Collared Buck, like the lost Incas, was the last 
of his race. Years before, a whole colony of white- 
necked rabbits had lived in the hedgerows outside 
the wood, but their ornament had proved a fatal 
guide to foxes and stoats, and this winter the sole 
survivor lived in Knockdane, a hermit and a 
solitary. He had his headquarters in a burrow 
in the elder thicket above Grimalkin's glen ; but 
as in that wet season, like many other of the holes 
in Knockdane, it was often full of water, he was 
obliged to ' lie up ' in the woods, whether he liked 
or not. Very early in the morning, after moonset, 
he went out to feed in the sheep field by a well-worn 
track ; but, as soon as the ' false dawn ' appeared, 
he returned to the wood, and made a ' form ' in 
some patch of fern or bramble, where he passed the 
day. Grimalkin the cat never wasted his time over 
rabbits unless there was reasonable chance of success, 
and although he often crossed the Collared Buck's 
hot trail he never turned aside to follow it. Some- 
times indeed he caught a glimpse of the Buck himself 
