The Last of the Barons 85 



learnt their language and their notions. A great 

 change, he told me, had come over them in the 

 course of his long life. They are now too much 

 interested in us, he said. Once they did not 

 care at all about us, and then we flourished. 

 Now they are poking and prying everywhere ; 

 they run about on all sorts of machines, find us 

 out, and won't let us alone. They go to the 

 ends of the earth to worry us birds, wear our 

 feathers in their hats, and put our skins and our 

 eggs in their museums. It isn't that they hate 

 us, he said : it's much worse than that. No, 

 they pretend to love us, and they show their love 

 by coming and spying after us and watching all 

 we do. They are so fond of us that they can't 

 keep their hands off us ; and the harder it is to 

 find us the more trouble they take. Yes, I 

 believe that old Raven was right! Man takes 

 such an interest in us that there will be none of 

 us left soon ! " 



" Let us try once more," said the Baroness, 

 with all the hopefulness of youth. " Come down 

 and find a tree on the steepest face of the old 

 fortress. It is quite time we were beginning; 



