132 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



sudden shadow being associated with rain in his 

 mind, and he flies to shelter himself in the nearest 

 hole; and if the gloom falls on the earth fifty or 

 a hundred times a day he will act in the same way 

 every time. It was owing to this extreme sensitive- 

 ness of the wheatear, and its inability to distinguish 

 between a rain-cloud and a cloud without rain, that 

 the shepherds were so successful in taking them in 

 their simple traps. So well did the shepherd know 

 this habit and weakness of the bird, that on a dry 

 day of unbroken cloud he did not look to get more 

 than a few birds; on a day of continual sunshine 

 he hardly thought it worth while to visit his coops ; 

 but on a day of flying clouds and broken lights he 

 would go the round of his coops three or four times 

 to collect the birds and reset the snares. 



Hurdis, the poet of the downs, in The Favoritt 

 Village, in a long passage on the subject of wheatear- 

 catching, has the following lines : 



So when the fevered cloud of August day 



Flits through the blue expanse . . . 



The timorous wheatear, fearful of the shade, 



Trips to the hostile shelter of the clod, 



And where she sought protection finds a snare. 



. . . Seized by the springe 

 She nutters for lost liberty in vain, 

 A costly morsel, destined for the board 

 Of well-fed luxury, if no kind friend, 

 No gentle passenger the noose dissolve, 

 And give her to her free-born wing again. 

 Incautious bird, such as thy lot is now, 

 Such once was mine. . . . 



