New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-10

the house mouse This expression more than JUS
tilted bv the fact; for the marsh mouse confident IN
his Furnishing little jaws and dstrusfu OF his agility,
had dangerous propensity to stay and hight when ne
ought to be running away. 1t propensity that,
owing to the abundance of his enemies, would have led
speedily to the determination of his but tor the
amazing and unremittng fecund1ty that dwet IN ms
blood.
For all his courage however, there some foes
that he had no inclination to meet and face-even
he of the biggest and strongest OF his kind As ne
glanced aside from his nOsng the samphre TUFTS ne
Caught sight of broad black splotch of shadow, sweep
ing up the baked surface of the fiat at terrific speed
He did not look up. He had need to. Only too
well he knew what was casting that SINISTER shadow
Though agility not supposed to be his strong point
his movement he shot across the open from the
samphre tuft to the mouth of his tunnel was almost
quick to follow. He gained the root tr1nged door
lust in time As his frantic cringing hind quarters dis
appeared into the hole the great taons of the
hawk plunged into the root fringe, closing and cutch1ng
savagely that the mouth OF the tunnel was ooter
ated. Grass roots, however, were not what those
rendng talons wanted, and the great hawk rising an
grily tapped off to the other side of the dixie
WITHIN the tunnel the brown mouse ran on DIES.
w perately as if he felt those fatal talons still
reaching after him. The tunnel was not quite IN dark
ness for here and there CLEAN of light came lter1ng
through the roots that formed its root and here and
there round opening gave access to the yelow-green
world among the big stiff grass stalks The floor was
smooth from the feet and teeth OF countless other
marsh mice water vOles and mole ShrewS. 10 night
and left went branching off nnumerabe side tunnels
and galleries, an apparently inextrcable maze But
the brown mouse raced straight on, back from the
water side deep into the heart of the marsh anxious
only to put himself far possible from the scene OF
his hOrrid adventure.
Running thus suddenly, he bumped hard into little
wayfarer who ourneying in the opposite direction
The tunnel that only by the use OF GER
tain circurnspection and consideration could two
travellers pass each other comfortably. Now, the
stranger was a mole shrew, much smaller than the
brown mouse but of temper unpleasant as that OF
angry buffalo. That the mouse should come butt1ng
into him in that rude fashion indgnity not to
be tolerated. Crashing his long chiselike teeth, he
grappled bindly and rent the brown nouses ear to
ribbons. But this mistake on his part, distinct
error of Judgment The brown mouse was no slim
tinorous barn mouse field mouse, slow and clumsy
mole He fighter and with strength to back his
pugnacity. He caught the angry shrew by the neck,
bit him nercilessly shook him limp, trod him Under
foot and raced Not until he reached his snug nest
in the burrow the foot of the dixie did he quite regain
his equanirnity.
Just about this time there succession of heavy
southwest gales, which piled up the water into the fun