signs--An unknown scent--The agony of
fear--A change of mood--The weasel's raid--A place of slaughter--Autumn
preparations--A general panic--Hibernation--Winter sunshine--The
red bank-voles--Owls and hawks 131-150

II.

THE VALLEY OF OLWEN.

The last of winter's stores--Renewed activity--The field-vole's
food--A lively widow vole--An unequal encounter--First fond
passion--Ominous sounds--A clumsy rabbit--An unimportant "affair"--An
elopement--Nesting time--A fussy parent--A fox pays a visit--Also
a carrion crow--Repairing damages 151-166

III.

A BARREN HILLSIDE.

A secluded pasture--Poachers and owls--An astute magpie--The
vole a sire of many families--Plague--Nature's caprice--Privation
and disease--Unexpected destroyers--A living skeleton--Starvation
and death--An owl once more 167-175

THE FOX.

I.

THE LAST HUNT.

A baffled marauder--The flesh of breeding creatures tough and
tasteless--An unsavoury rat--The arrival of the Hunt--The fox sees
his foes--The view-halloo--No respite, no mercy, no sanctuary--The
last hope--A fearless vixen--Defiant to the end 177-193

II.

A NEW HOME.

Life in an artificial "earth"--Longing and despair--Contentment
of maternity--Prisoners--A way of escape--Careless infancy--A
precocious cub--First lessons--An obedient family--A fox's
smile--Inborn passion for flesh--Favourite food of fox-cubs--The
huntsman's desire 194-209

III.

THE CUB AND THE POLECAT.

Patience and watchfulness--How to capture field-voles--Winding
trails--Ill-luck--A painful surprise--A fresh line of scent--Cost
of a struggle--A luckless fortnight--The old hound and the "young
entry"--A curiously shaped monster--Pursued by a lurcher--
Desertion--A vagrant bachelor 210-223

IV.

A CRY OF THE NIGHT.

The hunting call--A recollection--A joyous greeting--A woodland
bride--The sting of a wasp--Preparation of a "breeding earth"--Meddlesome
jays and magpies--A rocky fastness on the wild west coast--Vulp's
retreat--The end of a long life--The fox's mask--Memories 224-240

THE BROWN HARE.

I.

THE UPLAND CORNFIELD.

Midsummer--The leveret's birth--First wanderings--Instinct and
teachi