and finding his appetite still unappeased,
the shrew at once resumed his vehement digging. His marvellously
developed nostrils had assured him that a little farther on beneath the
turf were more grubs, or well-conditioned earthworms, or the stupid, big
red-brown beetles called "May-bugs." In a few seconds only his hind
quarters were visible among the grass-roots. Then, only a twitch of his
short tail, or a kick of his hind claws. At this moment a broad, swift
shadow appeared overhead; and a hungry marsh-hawk, dropping like a shot,
clutched with eager claws at the mouth of the burrow. That deadly
clutch tore up some grass-roots and some fresh earth, but just failed to
reach the diligent burrower. Tail and hind legs had been nimbly drawn in
just in time, as if forewarned of the swooping peril; and the hawk flew
off heavily, to resume his quartering of the pasture.

Unruffled by his narrow escape, the shrew went on with his burrowing. He
ran his gallery very near the surface,--in fact, close under the roots
of the turf, where the grubs and beetles were most numerous. Sometimes
he would dip an inch or more, to avoid a bit of difficult excavation;
but more often he would press so closely to the surface that the thin
layer of sod above him would heave with every surging motion. The loose
earth, for the most part, was not thrust behind him, but jammed to
either side or overhead, and so vigorously packed in the process as to
make strong walls to the galleries, which zigzagged hither and thither
as the moment's whim or the scent of some quarry might dictate.

In the absolute darkness of his straitened underworld the shrew felt no
consciousness of restriction. His eyes tight closed, the thick earth
pressing upon him at every point, he felt nevertheless as free as if all
the range of upper air were his. The earthy dark was nothing to him,
for the nerves of his marvellous nose served all the purposes of sight
and hearing. It was, indeed, as if he heard, felt, smelled, and saw, all
with his nose. If the walls of the narrow tunnel pressed him too
straitly, he could expand them by a few seconds of digging. In fact, his
underground world, limited as it was, for the moment contented him
utterly. From time to time he would scent, through perhaps a
quarter-inch of earth, a worm or a grub ahead of him. Then he would
drive forward almost with a pounce, clutch the prey, and devour it
delightedly there in the dark.

Suddenly the earth brok