vi CONTEXTS 



PAGES 



in sainfoin— Field scabious — Fertile spots — Dropwort and 

 heath — Harebells — Brilliant colour and intensity of life — 

 Minute flowers of the turf — Old Gerarde — Eyebright : its 

 obscure habits — The dwarf thistle. 



CHAPTER IV 



A FAIRY FAUNA . , 59-71 



Insect-life of the downs — Common snail — Adder-like 

 colouring of some snails — The "thrushes' anvil" — Eccentric 

 motions of flies — Peculiar colouring of some flies — The cow- 

 dung fly — A thyme-loving fly — Butterflies — Disposition and 

 habits of the small blue — Sleep in insects — The humble-bee 

 — Intoxicating effect of thistle flower on bees — The unknown 

 faculties of insects — De Quincey's " gluttonism. " 



CHAPTER V 

 WILD LIFE 72-102 



Wild life confined to the furze — The rabbit and his 

 enemy — The fox abundant — A badgers' earth — Tenacity of 

 the badger — Dead shrews — Moles without water — Catching 

 moles for fun — A shepherd on moles — Birds — Extinct species 

 — A shepherd's reminiscences — Buzzards building on bushes 

 — Black game in Ashdown Forest — The last stone curlew — 

 Long-eared owl — Pre-natal suggestion in the lower animals — 

 Existing large birds — A colony of gulls at Seaford — Kestrel 

 preying on grasshoppers — Turtle-dove — Missel-thrush and 

 small birds — Wheatears and sea-poppies — Shrike — The com- 

 mon lizard's weakness — Sheep killed by adders — Beauty of 

 the adder — A handful of adders — Shepherd boy and big 

 snake. 



CHAPTER VI 



THE SHEPHERD OF THE DOWNS .... 103-125 



The shepherd as a picturesque figure — His best qualities 

 racial — The Saxon type predominant in downland — The 

 peasant's good looks — A great beer-drinker — Scene in a village 

 public-house — Bad and good qualities of the peasant — Charac- 

 ter in a small boy — Beauty of person — A labourer's family — 

 A pet lamb and the Salvation Army — A Sussex maid — Persis- 

 tence of type — The Culpepper family — The shepherd's good 

 looks — Contented minds — A talk with a shepherd. 



