176 THE LIGHT. 



sees you, watches you, sends a deep roar from the cavernous recesses 

 of his throat of brass, sums up his living prey, exacts and lays claim 

 to it ! The horse cannot be held still ; he trembles, a cold sweat 

 pours over him, he plunges to and fro. His rider, crouching between 

 the watch-fires, if he succeeds in kindling any, with difficulty pre- 

 serves sufficient strength to feed the rampart of light which is his. 

 only safeguard. 



Night is equally terrible for the birds, even in our climates, where it 

 would seem less dangerous. What monsters it conceals, what fright- 

 ful chances for the bird lurk in its obscurity ! Its nocturnal foes have 

 this characteristic in common their approach is noiseless. The 

 screech-owl flies with a silent wing, as if wrapped in tow (comme 

 etoupfe de ouate). The weasel insinuates its long body into the nest 

 without disturbing a leaf. The eager polecat, athirst for the warm 

 life-blood, is so rapid, that in a moment it bleeds both parents and pro- 

 geny, and slaughters a whole family. 



It seems that the bird, when it has little ones, enjoys a second 

 sight for these dangers. It has to protect a family far more feeble 

 and more helpless than that of the quadruped, whose young can walk 

 as soon as born. But how protect them ? It can do nothing but 

 remain at its post and die ; it cannot fly away, for its love has broken 

 its wings. All iiiglii the narrow entry of the nest is guarded by the 

 father, who sinks with fatigue, and opposes danger with feeble beak 

 and shaking head. What will this avail if the enormous jaw of the 

 serpent suddenly appears, or the horrible eye of the bird of death, 

 immeasurably enlarged by fear ? 



Anxious for its young, it has little care for itself. In its "season 

 of solitude Nature spares it the tortures of prevision. Sad and 

 dejected rather than alarmed, it is silent, it sinks down and hides its 

 little head under its wings, and even its neck disappears among the 

 plumes. This position of complete self-abandonment, of confidence, 

 which it had held in the egg in the happy maternal prison, where 

 its security was so perfect it resumes every evening in the midst of 

 perils and without protection. 



