WITH INSECT WINGS 173 



contest beneath, the endless, fatal battle of the 

 brake. 



At each moment the fortunes of the combatants 

 are changed. A swallow snatches a thousand from 

 the surface of the water ; a shrike has seen the 

 dragonfly, and overtaken him ; and a sharp cry 

 comes from a corner at the water's edge, where a 

 little frog, watching for insects, has himself been 

 watched by a snake. And meanwhile the sedge- 

 birds sing in the sunshine, chattering, laughing as 

 it were, joyously in the midst of this whirl of life. 

 Yet they suddenly cease, for above them appears a 

 sparrowhawk, circling, waiting for the chance of 

 catching some little bird or a mouse. He surely 

 has no fear? And yet sometimes he too must 

 seek shelter in the thicket, when far, far aloft, a 

 dark speck passing with even glide across the 

 zenith reveals a stronger and fiercer bird for- 

 tunately for him a much less common one the 

 lord of the English sky, the deadly peregrine. 



But there is laughter as well as war in the 

 animal world, the flutter of bright wings beside 

 the gnashing of sharp teeth. There are creatures 

 that pursue in play as well as those that track to 



