Alfred Russel Wallace 



their long tails up and down when they alight on the ground 

 or on a branch. Other birds with long tails jerk them up in 

 the air when they alight on a branch. Now these varied 

 motions, like the motions of many butterflies, caterpillars, 

 and many other animals, must have a use to the animal, and 

 the most common, or rather the most probable, use is, either 

 to frighten or to distract an enemy. If a hawk was very 

 hungry and darted dow^n on a wagtail from up in the air, 

 the wagging tail would be seen most distinctly and be aimed 

 at, and thus the bird would be missed or at most a feather 

 torn out of the tail. The bird hunts for food in the open, 

 on the edges of ponds and streams, and would be especially 

 easy to capture, hence the wagging tail has been developed 

 to baffle the enemy. ... 



To Miss Violet Wallace 



Parkstone, Dorset. March 8, 1899. 



My dear Violet, — ... I have now finished reading the 

 " Maha Bharata," which is on the whole very fine — finer, 

 I think, than the " Iliad." I have read a good deal of it 

 twice, and it will bear reading many times. It corresponds 

 pretty nearly in date with the '' Iliad," the scenes it de- 

 scribes being supposed to be about B.C. 1500. Many of the 

 ideas and moral teachings are beautiful; equal to the best 

 teaching and superior to the general practice of to-day. I 

 have made a lot of emendations and suggestions, which I 

 am going to send to the translator, as the proofs have evi- 

 dently not been carefully read by any English literary man. 



About the year 1899 Dr. Wallace began to think of leav- 

 ing Parkstone, partly for reasons of health and partly to get 

 a larger garden, if possible. He spent three years in looking 

 for a suitable spot in many of the southern counties, and we 

 were all pressed to join in the search. Finally he found just 

 the spot he wanted at Broadstone, only three miles away. 



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