MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



will stalk the boggy hollows ; for you, the 

 banded badger will creep stealthily from his 

 earth and disport himself at dusk among 

 his frolicsome cublets ; for you, the- dappled 

 adder will sun his zigzag spots, and dart 

 his tremulous tongue, all shivering and 

 quivering; for you, the turbulent quail will 

 darken the ground in spring, or spread 

 cloud-like over the sky on cloudless summer 

 evenings. 



And what poetry, too, in their sudden 

 entrance on the scene, dropped down from 

 heaven, one would think, as on Israel in 

 the wilderness! Small wonder the marvel- 

 loving Hebrew annalist took those multi- 

 tudinous birds for the subject of a miracle. 

 But yesterday, perhaps, they were fattening 

 their plump crops among the vine-shoots 

 of Capri, the lush young vine-shoots with 

 their pellucid pink tendrils ; and to-day, 

 here they are among the dry English 

 heather, as quick and eager of eye as by 

 Neapolitan fig-orchards. Swift of flight and 

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