HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



must be brought to the extreme limit, beyond which 

 it becomes debilitating and is a positive danger, even 

 to betraying to destruction the life it was designed to 

 save. Let us consider this fact in connection with 

 that of pre-natal suggestion of weak species fre- 

 quently excited to an extremity of fear at the sight, 

 familiar to them, of some deadly enemy, and the 

 possible effect of that constantly recurring violent dis- 

 turbance and image, of terror on the young that are 

 to be. 



The guess may go for what it is worth. We 

 know that the susceptibility of certain animals the 

 vole and the frog, let us say to fascination, is like 

 nothing else in animal life, since it is a great dis- 

 advantage to the species, a veritable weakness, which 

 might even be called a disease ; and that it must 

 therefore have its cause in too great a strain on the 

 system somewhere ; and we know, too, that it is in- 

 heritable. But the facts are too few, since no one 

 has yet taken the pains to collect data on the matter. 

 There is a good deal of material lying about in print ; 

 and I am astonished at many things I hear from 

 intelligent keepers, and other persons who see a good 

 deal of wild life, bearing on this subject. But I do not 

 now propose to follow it any further. 



I went into the oak wood one morning, and, finding 

 it unusually still, betook myself to a spot where I had 

 often found the birds gathered. It was a favourite 



