182 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



at last that it was not possible for him to injure or 

 touch these elusive little creatures, he determined 

 that they should gather no mud at that place, and 

 with head up he watched them circling like great 

 flies around him, dashing savagely at them whenever 

 they came lower, or paused in their flight, or dropped 

 lightly down on the margin. It was a curious and 

 amusing spectacle the big, shapeless, lumbering bird 

 chasing them round and round the pool in his stupid 

 spite ; they by contrast so beautiful in their shining 

 purple mantle, snow-white breast, and stockinged feet, 

 their fairy-like aerial bodies that responded so quickly 

 to every motion of their bright, lively, little minds. 

 It was like a very heavy policeman "moving on" a 

 flock of fairies. 



One remembers -^Esop's dog hi the manger, and 

 thinks that this and many of the apologues are really 

 nothing but everyday incidents in animal life, told 

 just as they happened, with the addition of speech 

 (in some cases quite unnecessary) put in the mouth 

 of the various actors. ^Esop's dog did not want to 

 be disturbed in his bed of hay, and was not such an 

 unredeemed curmudgeon as the Selborne fowl; but 

 this unlovely temper or feeling spite and petty 

 tyranny and persecution is exceedingly common in 

 the lower animals, from the higher vertebrates down 

 even to the insects. 



My third visit to Selborne was in July 1901. I 

 went there on the 12th and stayed till the 23rd. Now 



