282 BIRDS AND MAN 



life-like attitudes, with wideawake glass eyes, blue or 

 dark, in their sockets, their hair varnished to preserve 

 its natural colour and glossy appearance. They are 

 placed separately in glass cases to keep them from the 

 dust, and the cases are set up in pairs in niches in the 

 walls of the palace of hell. The lord of the place 

 takes great pride in these objects ; one of his favourite 

 amusements is to sit in his easy-chair in front of a 

 niche to listen by the hour to the endless discussions 

 going on between the two specimens, in which each 

 expresses his virulent but impotent hatred of the 

 other, damning his glass eyes ; at the same time 

 relating his own happy life and adventures in the 

 upper sunlit world, how important a person he was 

 in his own parish of borough, and what a gorgeous 

 time he was having when he was unfortunately 

 nabbed by one of the collectors or gamekeepers in 

 his lordship's service. 



