AUGUST. 131 



hairs of the others painfully irritate the gullet of any 

 small bird which foolishly eats the eggs, so, no doubt, 

 the secretion of the satin moth furnishes its eggs with 

 protection against the hungry. Otherwise, every 

 wandering tomtit would eat them, because you can- 

 not help seeing the white spots on the tree-trunks as 

 you pass. Indeed, this is one of the cases where a 

 little entomological knowledge would be useful to 

 local " authorities," for a boy sent round to scrape off 

 and destroy the egg-patches could in a day annihilate 

 many tens of thousands of embryo caterpillars, which 

 would otherwise devour half of the leaves upon the 

 trees. 



THE HARVEST'S UPHEAVAL. 



August 23. A terrible revolution has been taking 

 place in the country-side. For many birds and small 

 beasts the whole theory of the universe and the nature 

 of existence have been upset. Until a couple of 

 weeks ago the landscape was covered with wide 

 sweeps of standing crops, beneath whose pillared 

 shade partridges and field-mice, leverets and land- 

 rails, rabbits, rats, and hedgehogs wandered in 

 security, as wild men might dwell in the shades of 

 endless forest. Each row of wheat made a whisper- 

 ing aisle of grateful shade and shelter, narrowing to 

 infinite perspective to either end, and crossed at 

 every few inches by right-angled alleys, which lost 

 themselves at once in other glades that stretched 

 far as eye could reach. Some of the older crea- 

 tures, perhaps, could remember the time when the 

 world had been different. Perhaps they could even 



