56 THE HUNTED HARE 



speare's description (in the passage given a few lines above) of 

 the 'purblind hare '. Cp. Chaucer's account of the Pardoner's 

 eyes in the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales 



Swich glaringe eyen hadde he as an hare. 



14. The scented dew. Harriers, or beagles, hunt the hare 

 relying on their scent ; greyhounds rely on their sight. 



16. openings. The barking of the hounds working on a hot 

 scent. 



THE HALCYON, OR KINGFISHER 



The King- AN American essayist in a poetical mood has referred 

 fisher an ^ Q ^ Q w jj^ ^ee ag < an an i ma ted torrid zone ' a con- 

 from he celt as quaint as any which the ingenuity of Donne or 

 Tropics. j ie f anc y o f Fuller ever invented. The designation 

 suggests (as it was suggested by) the indolent ease of 

 the insect's loitering flight among summer blossoms, 

 its drowsy hum of contentment, but especially the 

 warm golden cincture with which its velvet jacket is 

 loosely girt. But the banded bee is not the only 

 creature resident in our high latitudes which reminds 

 us of torrid warmth and colouring. There is the 

 peacock a vision of the gorgeous East, with its 

 ' aungel's fethres brighte ' ; but the bird needs man's 

 care and protection and is with us only on these con- 

 ditions. There is the parrot, too ; but he is a captive, 

 and had no choice of settlement when he exchanged 

 his native paradise for our colder and dimmer skies. 

 The one genuine immigrant or estray from the tropics 

 which lives of its own free accord among us, without 

 bating one jot of its foreign splendour, is the king- 

 fisher. 



