AUTUMN, 1912 289 



in some other things, but arc better tlian wc are in their 

 treatment of birds. 



On anotlier day I stole into the pine-wood growing 

 on tlie sandhills by the sea, and in the heart of the wood 

 came to a deep basin-like depression in the sand, and 

 there I seated myself on the rim or margin among the 

 long grey marram grass, with the dark red pillars of 

 the pines standing all about me. It was marvellously 

 still in that hidden phicc in tlie wood; after sitting 

 there for half-an-hour, listening and watching, the 

 thought came to me that I might stay there half a day 

 without seeing any living creature or hearing any 

 faintest sound of life. Yet before another minute had 

 passed something living flashed into sight, the woodland 

 creature that is most alive — a beautiful red squirrel 

 with an exceptionally big bushy tail. He glided swiftly 

 down a bole, and straightway began leaping, pirouetting, 

 and dashing hither and thither about the floor of the 

 basin, not twenty yards from my feet. As I sat 

 motionless he did not see or did not heed me: he was 

 alone in the wood, and was like the solitary nightingale 

 that asks for no witness to his song, and played his 

 glad, mad game with his whole soul. Now with feet 

 together he arched his body like a stoat, then flung 

 himself out full length and dashed round in a circle, 

 and as he moved there was an undulating motion, as 

 of wave following wave along his back and tail which 

 gave him a serpentine appearance. On coming to a 

 thick bed of pine needles, he all at once became motion- 

 less and spread himself out on the ground and looked 



