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A Book of Nimble Beasts: Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and "Those Sort of People"

Chapter 2: ILLUSTRATIONS
By Douglas English
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A month-by-month collection of illustrated nature sketches for young readers that examines small mammals, amphibians, insects and other diminutive creatures. Each short chapter combines careful observation, life-cycle explanation and anecdotal description—covering bats, tadpoles and frogs, nests, beetles, rabbits, butterflies, wasps, chameleons and more—often tied to seasonal or festival dates. Photographic and drawn illustrations accompany accessible accounts of behaviour, habitat and development, blending scientific detail with playful storytelling.

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Title: A Book of Nimble Beasts: Bunny Rabbit, Squirrel, Toad, and "Those Sort of People"

Author: Douglas English

Release date: July 13, 2017 [eBook #55097]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: E-text prepared by MFR, Chris Pinfield, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org)

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A BOOK OF
NIMBLE BEASTS

He held himself with an air, his body arched, one broad white pad uplifted, his tail curved decorously.—In Weasel Wood.

A BOOK OF
NIMBLE BEASTS

BUNNY RABBIT, SQUIRREL, TOAD,
AND "THOSE SORT OF PEOPLE"

BY
DOUGLAS ENGLISH
FELLOW AND MEDALIST OF THE ROYAL
PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY

WITH OVER 200 ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF LIVING
ANIMALS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR

London
EVELEIGH NASH & GRAYSON LTD.
148 Strand
1922

Printed by
WOODS & SONS, LTD.,
338-340, Upper Street,
London, N. 1.

IN MEMORY
C. J. E.

CONTENTS

PAGE
JANUARY
SOMETHING ABOUT BATS 17
FEBRUARY
SOMETHING ABOUT TADPOLES 29
VALENTINE'S DAY
A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO 41
MARCH
ANIMALS' NESTS 75
APRIL
SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES 89
LADY DAY
BUNNY RABBIT 101
MAY
A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX 117
JUNE
TWO WONDERFUL WASPS 127
MIDSUMMER DAY
SPINIPES THE SAND-WASP 143
JULY
PICTURES ON BUTTERFLIES' WINGS 171
AUGUST
A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE 179
LAMMAS DAY
IN WEASEL WOOD 187
SEPTEMBER
SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING AND
WOLVES IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING		 213
OCTOBER
THE BEASTIES' BED-TIME 227
MICHAELMAS DAY
THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS 237
NOVEMBER
SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON 261
DECEMBER
THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS 269
CHRISTMAS DAY
THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND 279
BOXING-DAY
THE PYGMY SHREW 301

ILLUSTRATIONS

ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR

IN WEASEL WOOD
He held himself with an air, his body arched, one broad white pad uplifted, his tail curved decorously Frontispiece
A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO
The Green Toad slowly stretched himself. "THAT?" said he, "that's not French" 60
At the fifth stone—a bulky slanting one—he sighted the French Frog 60
SPINIPES, THE SAND WASP
An instant's pause to shift her grip, and she had pushed the grub within the entrance 162
"Take that—and that—and That," said Spinipes, and drove her sharp Sting home 162
THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND
And the last thing Winnie remembers was the Great Green Grasshopper's Wife hurrying the little Skipjacks off to bed 279

ILLUSTRATIONS IN TEXT

SOMETHING ABOUT BATS
Natterer's Bat 17
Lesser Horseshoe Bat 19
The Noctule 20
The Noctule 21
Lesser Horseshoe Bat going to sleep 22
The Greater Horseshoe 23
Long-eared Bat 24
The Greater Horseshoe Bat hanging head downwards 25
The Pipistrelle 27
SOMETHING ABOUT TADOLES
Toad's Spawn 29
Frog's Spawn floating on the water 31
Frog's Spawn Quite Fresh 33
Frog's Spawn beginning to Grow 34
Frog's Spawn showing Young Tadpoles, &c. 35
Tadpoles getting like Frogs 36
Tadpoles full grown 39
A FROG HE WOULD A-WOOING GO
Passable 43
His Little Eyes were Starting from their Sockets 47
The Water Rat 48
The Salamander 51
The Natterjack 52
Have you Seen this Trick before 53
The French Frog 57
"I see a Natterjack" 58
"Fetch him," thundered the King Toad 59
Five Times He Tried 65
The Shrew Mouse 66
He Bristled with Apologies 67
The Green Toad 69
His Inside was Red Hot 70
He Lay as He had Fallen 71
"Ducks," whispered Bombinatrix 73
ANIMALS' NESTS
Four Moles' Nests Together 77
The Squirrel 79
The Harvest Mouse Nest 81
The Dormouse 83
A Dormouse's Nursery Nest 85
The Harvest Mouse 86
SOMETHING ABOUT BEETLES
The Stag-Beetle 91
The Stag-Beetle that I ran over 93
The Female Stag-Beetle 95
The Great Water Beetle 96
The Musk Beetle 97
The Cockchafer 98
The Churchyard Beetle 99
BUNNY RABBIT
Landed on his Back six feet below 103
It wasn't Mother after all 105
He Combed his Ears Out 106
He Watched and Heard the Awakening of the Wood 108
Berus the Adder 110
Lay full length, eyes closed 113
Bunny Rabbit Watched him out of Sight 116
A BUTTERFLY PAINT-BOX
The Brimstone Butterfly 118
The Red Admiral 119
The Purple Emperor 120
The Clifden Blue 121
The Swallow Tail Butterfly 122
The Black Pepper Moth 123
The Silver-washed Fritillary 124
TWO WONDERFUL WASPS
Spinipes' burrow opened up 128
Spinipes Bringing up a Grub 129
Spinipes Grub Feeding 131
Cocoon which Spinipes' Grubs make 132
The Little Beetle that Caterpillars turn into 133
Before and After the Thunderstorm 135
Crabro 136
Crabro Looking out of her hole 137
How the Cocoons Looked 138
One of the Crabro's Stores of Blue-Bottles 139
What the piece of Elm-bough looked like 140
One of the Cocoons of Crabro in Elm-bough 141
SPINIPES, THE SAND-WASP
The Sand Cliff splits the Old Gravel-Pit in two 144
First the Wild Bees, Red King, Black Queen 146
Down Dropped a Red King 147
"In Sand, Ma'am, in Sand" 148
"Well, call me when it comes" 149
Spinipes commenced to Dig in Earnest 151
"Good Hunting, Sister!" said the Ophion Fly 153
The Rose Chafer 155
Out flew the Bees 157
Hour after Hour she Toiled 158
The Lowest Chamber of the Shaft now held a precious thing 159
A Flabby, Green, Blackheaded Grub 160
Twelve Grubs in all she brought 163
She Sank five other Curving Shafts 167
PICTURES ON BUTTER-FLIES' WINGS
The Magpie Moth 171
The Emperor Moth 173
The Elephant Hawk Moth's Caterpillar 174
The Elephant Hawk Moth showing his Trunk 175
The Peacock Butterfly 176
The Mother Shipton Moth 177
A VERY WEE BEASTIE AND A VERY BIG ONE
The Common Shrewmouse 181
The Water Shrewmouse 183
The Pygmy Shrewmouse 184
How the Pygmy Coils Himself Up to Sleep 185
IN WEASEL WOOD
Again the Fox Cub was Puzzled 188
He Sank from his Hindquarters forward 191
The Stoat Tiptoed Towards Him 193
"My Plumed Tail! you wait till Squirrel grows" 195
Marten has seen you 197
"Perhaps you will be good enough to get higher up the tree" 201
It was another Badger 207
She came out full charge 209
And in due course of time, his wife 210
SHEEP IN WOLVES' CLOTHING
The Lobster Moth Caterpillar 213
The Spider on the Bramble Blossom 217
The Dragon in the Water-weed 219
The Lobster Moth Caterpillar, Angry 220
The Ichneumon Fly 221
The Puss Moth Caterpillar 223
The Giant Wood Wasp 225
THE BEASTIES' BEDTIME
The Queen Wasp in her Winter Sleep 227
Bill the Lizard 228
Toadums 229
Round Eye the Dormouse 230
Dormouse in his Winter Sleep 231
Prickles the Hedge Pig 233
The Hedge Pig in his Winter Sleep 234
Lesser Horseshoe Bat Asleep 235
THE BLUNDERS OF BARTIMÆUS
Bartimæus 237
He Headed Straight for the Water 239
The Bank Rose Steeply Over Him 241
Only one grass-blade stirred, but Tatters saw it 246
The Harvest Mouse stood up full length 251
The Harvest Mouse drew herself up indignant 253
"Weasels!" said the Meadow Mouse 254
"Don't rush!" the Pygmy screamed behind 257
His fortress, his own fortress had been breached 258
SOMETHING ABOUT A CHAMÆLEON
You can see his eye looking back over his shoulder 263
You can see his hands and feet 265
The Chamæleon 267
THE TRAIL OF NIMBLE BEASTS
Nuts Gnawed by Mice 269
The Weasel's Trail 271
Where the Weasel met the Mice 272
Where the Weasel met the Rook 274
Two Mouse Trails 275
The Fox's Footprints 276
THE GREAT GREEN GRASSHOPPER'S BAND
She Never went to Sleep at all 281
The Cricket was Sitting on the Hearthstone 283
The pair of them dropped 284
"I beg your pardon," said the Grasshopper's Wife 288
The Mole Cricket 291
The Field Cricket 292
The Wood Cricket 293
The First Note sent the Grasshopper's Wife's hind legs straight up 295
He had backed out of his hole 296
The Grasshopper's Wife reared herself up 297
THE PYGMY SHREW
The Woodmouse First 303
He took the Right-hand Surface run 305
He could now see and hear as well 306
His rival feinting, flicked his tail 308
The Grey Shrew Leant against the Trunk 309
With Tangled Tails and Rounded Straining Bodies 310
There they lay head to tail 311
The Field Voles 312
The Bat came to a halt and stared 313
The Pygmy climbed two inches up 314
Now one was on his back, now the other 315
The Mole plunged into the air 317

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

The publisher may, perhaps, be allowed to call the reader's attention to the illustrations—particularly to the two of the Sand-Wasps, reproduced in colour. The difficulties of photographing from wild life active creatures of such small dimensions as hymenopterous insects are very great from an optical standpoint. The picture of Spinipes bringing the beetle grub to her tube took several years to accomplish successfully, and the strain involved by the conditions, a blazing June sun on the operator's back, an uncertain foothold, and the necessity of keeping the attention riveted for hours on one particular patch of sunlit sand, was exceptional. It is of course possible, probable even, that with the introduction of an improved lens system, which will enable fast exposures to be made at very short range on minute moving objects, this particular picture may be repeated and improved upon. But the odds against the second picture on the same page, that of Spinipes stinging the jewel-fly, ever being repeated, are enormous. It will be necessary in order to secure the repetition of such a picture, first, that the camera shall be focussed on one out of a score of tubes; second, that the parasitic jewel-fly shall enter that particular tube; third, that the Owner Wasp shall return while the jewel-fly is below; fourth, that the Owner Wasp shall pull the jewel-fly to the surface; fifth, that the jewel-fly shall cling to the rim of the tube; sixth, that the Wasp shall sting it in this position—it will be noticed that the sting is directed at the junction of the thorax and abdomen; seventh, that the observer shall be ready to expose his plate at the exact psychological moment; and eighth, that he shall succeed in doing so. The first six conditions were, in Mr. English's case, fulfilled by chance. As regards the seventh he was unready. He was, in fact, some feet below his camera. But chance befriended him still further.

He caught the jewel-fly's glint, and caught the shadow of the returning Wasp. He flung his arm up, grabbed the dangling bulb, and pressed at random. This action dragged the camera from its moorings—to fix a camera on a Sand Cliff's side is no slight task—and it fell twelve feet down. Yet it had done its work and made the picture.

There are a score of pictures in this book, which are believed to be unique, not only by reason of the rarity of their subjects, but also by reason of the fact that they are the only pictures of such subjects, good or bad, in existence. The most remarkable among them is the picture of Spinipes stinging the jewel-fly.

INTRODUCTION

I know a Boy Scout who has never seen a weasel. Many weasels, I fancy, must have seen that Boy Scout.

And I know a Girl who has never seen a Harvest Mouse, but who might have, often.

There may be other boys and girls like these. There may be grown-ups also.

It is for them that I have written this book. It is to them that I offer its pictures.

I would lead them (with hushed voices and quiet feet) into God's Under-World; a World of queer small happenings; of sparkling eyes and vanishing tails; a whispering, rustling World.

I would have them, whatever their age be, approach this World as children. For children's eyes are closest to the ground.

Douglas English
Hawley, Dartford, 1910

SOMETHING ABOUT BATS
(JANUARY)

Natterer's Bat
The best-looking Bat in Britain

You must all, I think, have seen Bats flying, or, at any rate, pictures of Bats flying, and you must all know that they are night, or twilight, beasties, though some of our English kinds fly about in broad daylight more often than most people think. But do you all know that they are the only four-footed creatures that really fly—for they are four-footed though they don't look it; and do you all know that there are, probably, more different kinds of Bats in England than there are different kinds of any other beastie; and that they are the very ugliest of British Beasties, taking them altogether; and that they all have very small eyes—which is a queer thing for twilight beasties to have; owls, of course, and dormice have very big eyes—and that they have either very wonderful ears, or very wonderful noses, but not both together? If you don't know all this, perhaps you would like to hear more.

The Lesser Horseshoe Bat
You can see his nose-leaf, shaped like a horseshoe, very well in this picture. Both the Greater and Lesser Horseshoe Bats are wonderfully neat fliers

We had better, I think, begin with a Bat's wings, for, when we have learnt something about these, we may perhaps get some notion as to why a Bat is more clever in the air than a bird, and far, far more clever than a flying machine, worked by a human brain, is at present. The reason why a Bat is a cleverer, I don't mean a stronger, flier than a bird, is a reason which you young people will find to be a very common one, if ever you try your hand at guessing Mother Nature's riddles. It is simply this—that he has to be. A Bat has to catch his food, tiny food mostly, in the air, and he has to catch it in a bad light, and, as far as we can tell, though we cannot be sure of this, his eyesight is not as good as, say, a swallow's eyesight. This means that he has had to pick up a wonderful quickness in checking his own flight, and in turning sharp in the air, almost head over heels sometimes, and in diving, and in soaring up again. To do all these things well he has had to be built in a very special way, and I will try to explain to you how he has been built by comparing a Bat with one of ourselves, for you must remember that a Bat belongs to the same great order of living creatures as we do, and that a Bat is much more like a human being than a bird is.