The Project Gutenberg eBook of Creatures of the Night: A Book of Wild Life in Western Britain

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Title: Creatures of the Night: A Book of Wild Life in Western Britain

Author: Alfred Wellesley Rees

Release date: July 8, 2009 [eBook #29349]

Language: English

Credits: Produced by David Edwards, Marcia Brooks and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CREATURES OF THE NIGHT: A BOOK OF WILD LIFE IN WESTERN BRITAIN ***

CREATURES OF THE NIGHT

By the same Author.

IANTO THE FISHERMAN

AND OTHER SKETCHES OF COUNTRY LIFE.

Illustrated with Photogravures. Large Crown 8vo.

The Times.—“The quality which perhaps most gives its individuality to the book is distinctive of Celtic genius.... The characters ... are touched with a reality that implies genuine literary skill.”

The Standard.—“Mr Rees has taken a place which is all his own in the great succession of writers who have made Nature their theme.”

The Guardian.—“We can remember nothing in recent books on natural history which can compare with the first part of this book ... surprising insight into the life of field, and moor, and river.”

The Outlook.—“This book—we speak in deliberate superlative—is the best essay in what may be called natural history biography that we have ever read.”

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET


THE BROAD RIVER, IN WHICH SHE HAD SPENT HER EARLY LIFE. “THE BROAD RIVER, IN WHICH SHE HAD SPENT HER EARLY LIFE.”
(See p. 50.) To List


CREATURES OF THE NIGHT

A BOOK OF WILD LIFE IN
WESTERN BRITAIN

BY ALFRED W. REES

AUTHOR OF
“IANTO THE FISHERMAN”

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1905

TO
MYFANWY AND MORGAN
“All life is seed, dropped in Time's yawning furrow,
 Which, with slow sprout and shoot,
 In the revolving world's unfathomed morrow,
 Will blossom and bear fruit.”
 Mathilde Blind.

PREFACE.

The Editors of The Standard have kindly permitted me to republish the contents of this book, and I tender them my thanks.

The original form of these Studies of animal life has been extensively altered, and, in some instances, the titles have been changed.

I am again greatly indebted to my brother, R. Wilkins Rees. His wide and accurate knowledge has been constantly at my disposal, and in the preparation of these Studies he has given me much indispensable advice and assistance.

Similarity in the habits of some of the animals described has made a slight similarity of treatment unavoidable in certain chapters.

I may also remark that, in unfrequented districts where beasts and birds of prey are not destroyed by gamekeepers, the hare is as much a creature of the night as is the badger or the fox.

ALFRED W. REES.

Transcriber's Note: Obvious typographical errors have been corrected, and standardized the hyphenations, otherwise the text has been left as the original

CONTENTS.