Wee Timrous Beasties

"Wee Tim'rous Beasties", by
Douglas English

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Title: "Wee Tim'rous Beasties" Studies of Animal life and Character
Author: Douglas English
Release Date: July 24, 2007 [EBook #22129]
Language: English
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"WEE TIM'ROUS BEASTIES"
[Illustration: THE BLACK RAT SAT BACK ON HIS HAUNCHES,
PRICKED UP HIS EARS, AND LISTENED.]

"WEE TIM'ROUS BEASTIES"
STUDIES OF ANIMAL LIFE AND CHARACTER
BY DOUGLAS ENGLISH
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY OF
GREAT BRITAIN AUTHOR OF "PHOTOGRAPHY FOR
NATURALISTS"
SECOND EDITION
WITH ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS FROM HIS
PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIVING CREATURES
LONDON S. H. BOUSFIELD & CO., LTD 12, PORTUGAL STREET,
W.C.

TO MY DEAR CHILDREN BRYAN AND WINNIE

PREFACE
For permission to include in this volume "The Awakening of the
Dormouse," "The Purple Emperor," "The Harvest Mouse," and "The
Trivial Fortunes of Molge," I have to thank the Editor of the Girl's
Realm, and for "The Story of a Field Vole," and "The Passing of the
Black Rat," I am indebted to the courtesy of the Editor of Pearson's
Magazine.
DOUGLAS ENGLISH.
HAWLEY, DARTFORD, September, 1903.

CONTENTS
MUS RIDICULUS 1
THE STORY OF A FIELD VOLE 28
THE APOLOGY OF THE HOUSE SPARROW 48
THE AWAKENING OF THE DORMOUSE 66
THE PURPLE EMPEROR 88
THE HARVEST MOUSE 118
THE TRIVIAL FORTUNES OF MOLGE 142
THE PASSING OF THE BLACK RAT 171
THE FOX'S TRICKS ARE MANY; ONE IS ENOUGH FOR THE
URCHIN 192

[Illustration]
"WEE TIM'ROUS BEASTIES"
MUS RIDICULUS
Mus ridiculus! The taunt had been flung at him by a stout field-vole,
and, by reason of its novelty as well as of its intrinsic impertinence, had
sunk deep into his memory. He had felt at the time that "Wee sleekit,
cowrin', tim'rous beastie" was but a poor rejoinder. But he knew no
Latin and chose what was next in obscurity. Besides, he was a young
mouse then, and breathless with excitement.
The scene rose vividly before him--the moon shining grimly overhead,
and the mouse-folk stealing from the half-threshed stack across two
fields into the farmstead.

Since that night he had never entered a wheat-stack, for fear of the
leaving of it. For there are some things which, from a mouse standpoint,
will not bear repetition.
There had been a grey, slanting ghost-swish above, and his brother had
vanished skywards from within an inch of his side. He had turned to
stone before two ice-cold eyes, and realized the honest yard of snake
behind them. A stoat had passed him with its mouth too full to
snap--and all within two fields.
[Illustration: MUS RIDICULUS!]
Mus ridiculus! The vole was not so far wrong after all, for could
anything, whose intelligence was otherwise than laughable, be in his
present plight? In front of him were three horizontal wires, above him
were nine more, on either side an upright wooden wall, behind him a
slanting one, whose lower extremity nipped his tail. On the floor lay
innumerable crumbs of evil-smelling cheese.
When the door of the trap had clicked behind him, he had naturally
been startled. His fright, however, was due not so much to his
surroundings--he was used to close quarters--as to the forcible
restriction of his tail. Still, the cheese was within easy reach, and he had
determined to enjoy it. Indeed, he ate his full. Now, cheese on an empty
mouse stomach acts as an intoxicant. He had fallen into a drowsy
slumber, crouched in a back corner of the trap, and so he slept for an
hour.
His awakening was gradual, but rude. It was due to a steadily
increasing discomfort in his tail. It was not the first time, however, that
he had realized that a long, tapering tail has its disadvantages as well as
its uses. As a controllable balancing-pole, there is probably nothing to
equal it. As a parachute, it serves its purpose in a precipitate leap. As a
decoy, it frequently disturbs the enemy's aim. But, when once it is
firmly jammed, it is liable to congestion, and this is what awoke the
mouse.
At first he was inclined to treat the matter lightly. He had been caught

by the tail often enough, after all. He tried the normal methods of
release. Swinging round on his haunches, he caught the offending
member between his two fore-paws, so as to ease it out by