Creatures of the Night: A Book of Wild Life in Western Britain

Creatures of the Night: A Book of Wild Life in Western Britain

The Editors of The Standard have kindly permitted me to republish the contents of this book, and I tender them my thanks. The original form of these Studies of animal life has been extensively altered, and, in some instances, the titles have been changed. I am again greatly indebted to my brother, R. Wilkins Rees. His wide and accurate knowledge has been constantly at my disposal, and in the preparation of these Studies he has given me much indispensable advice and assistance. Similarity in the habits of some of the animals described has made a slight similarity of treatment unavoidable in certain chapters. I may also remark that, in unfrequented districts where beasts and birds of prey are not destroyed by gamekeepers, the hare is as much a creature of the night as is the badger or the fox. ALFRED W. REES. Lutra had almost caught him after his adventure with the owl. He had, however, eluded the otter by diving, in the nick of time, from the stone to which he clung before the entrance, and then seeking the land. If he had been an instant later, she would have picked him off, as a bat picks a moth from a lighted window-pane, and he would never have reached the down-stream shallow. At that time the water, clearing after a summer freshet, was fairly low. Brighteye's danger in some wild winter flood would, therefore, be far greater; so, timorous from his recent experiences, and sufficiently intelligent to devise and carry out plans by which he would secure greater safety, he occupied his spare time in the lengthening nights with driving a second shaft straight[Pg 105] inward from the chamber to a roomy natural hollow among the willow-roots, and thence in devious course, to avoid embedded stones, downward to a tiny haven in the angle of the buttress far inside the archway of the bank, where the space was so confined that the otter could not possibly follow him. Even the big trout, in his torpedo-like rush to cut off Brighteye from sure refuge, utterly failed to turn, and then enter the narrow archway, in time to catch the artful vole. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 29349
Author: Rees, Alfred Wellesley
Release Date: Jul 8, 2009
Format: eBook
Language: English