WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 23 



of the dove in the hawthorn ; the blackbird ruffling 

 out his feathers on a rail. The sense of living the 

 consciousness of seeing and feeling is manifestly in- 

 tense in them all, and is in itself an exquisite pleasure. 

 Their appetites seem ever fresh : they rush to the 

 banquet spread by Mother Earth with a gusto that 

 Lucullus never knew in the midst of his artistic glut- 

 tony ; they drink from the stream with dainty sips 

 as though it were richest wine. Watch the birds in 

 the spring : the pairs dance from bough to bough, 

 and know not how to express their wild happiness. 

 The hare rejoices in the swiftness of his limbs : his 

 nostrils sniff the air, his strong sinews spurn the earth ; 

 like an arrow from a bow he shoots up the steep hill 

 that we must clamber slowly, halting halfway to 

 breathe. On outspread wings the swallow floats above, 

 then slants downwards with a rapid swoop, and with 

 the impetus of the motion rises easily. Therefore it 

 is that this skull here, lying so light in the palm of 

 the hand, with the bright sunshine falling on it, and 

 a shadowy darkness in the vacant orbits of the eyes, 

 fills us with sadness. " As leaves on leaves, so men 

 on men decay ; " how much more so with these crea- 

 tures whose generations are so short ! 



If we look closely into the grass here on the slope 

 of the fosse, it is animated by a busy throng of insects 

 rushing in hot haste to and fro. They must find it 

 a labour and a toil to make progress through the 

 green forest of grass blade and moss and heaths and 

 thick thyme bunches, overtopping them as cedars, 



