232 THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER 



maggots lose their way and enter the eyes of the 

 toad, but die in those unsuitable quarters, not, how- 

 ever, before destroying, or greatly impairing the sight 

 of their luckless host. 



It is not to Nature that we must turn for lessons of 

 loving-kindness and altruism. Each for himself is 

 the dominant rule in her code. 



LV 



Readers must have wearied ere now of my persistent 



The Great now l s over tne senseless slaughter of rare 



spotted and beautiful birds ; but the attention of the 



Woodpecker pubHc ^ hard ^ gam To make oneself 



heard amid the complaints about matinee hats and 

 the motor nuisance, one must howl loud and long. 

 For the present I refrain from making my special 

 grievance prominent by interrupting the platform 

 eloquence of Cabinet Ministers. The success of that 

 method is not yet apparent ; should it become so, one 

 may be driven to adopt it in default of a better. 

 What distresses one is that no editor will print those 

 expressions which flow most readily from my pen in 

 regard to perpetrators of the misdeeds whereof I 

 complain ; so I am constrained to bottle my wrath 

 (which is very bad for anybody with gouty tendencies), 

 and, stating the bare facts, leave the verdict upon them 

 to a large-minded public. 



The latest offence (October 1908) against the law of 

 hospitality has occurred in a certain strath in central 

 Scotland, which shall be nameless. It consisted in the 



