Last, but not least, come macédoines. Macédoines in tins are simply mixed preserved vegetables, the chief ingredients being green peas, chopped carrot, and turnip.
Macédoines are one of the most useful kind of tinned goods to have in the house, as you can always make a pretty dish at a few moments’ notice. A spoonful of macédoines will turn some clear soup into a bright-looking spring soup. A tin of macédoines made hot and placed in the centre of a dish of mutton cutlets always has a bright and appetising appearance. Macédoines can also be added to the remains of some cold potatoes, and used to make a German salad; while, with a few hard-boiled eggs and a small pot of caviare, we can make with their assistance that excellent supper dish known as a Russian salad.
(To be continued.)
THE BROOK AND ITS BANKS.
By the Rev. J. G. WOOD, M.A., Author of “The Handy Natural History.”
CHAPTER V.
The bank-vole—A long-tailed field mouse—Its varied diet—Insect-eating—Robbing a moth-hunter—Treacles and their visitors—The voles as climbers—The water-shrew—Signification of its name—Habits of the water-shrew—Its activity and grace in the water—Teeth of the shrews—Structure of its ears—Mode of swimming—The flattened body—Colour of the water-shrew—Its food—The shrew and the rat—An unfounded accusation—Burrow of the water-shrew—Superstitions regarding the shrews—The shrew ash—Land-shrews—The shrew-mouse—Distinctive structures—Mortality among shrews—Killing shrews with shovels—The pigmy shrew—Our smallest mammal.
As might be expected from its name, the BANK-VOLE (Arvícola glaréolus) is to be sought upon the banks of our brook. As its tail is nearly as long as that of the common mouse, it is often called the “long-tailed field mouse,” and it may easily be distinguished from a true mouse which does inhabit the country by the shortness of its ears, the bluntness of its snout, and the white colour of its paws.
It has many of the habits of the campagnol, but its diet is more diversified, including insects, worms and snails, and it is accused of eating young birds.