MOORLAND IDYLLS. 



instinct in the matter of commissariat, in- 

 creased, no doubt, by ages of strategical 

 evolution : for it can be by no means easy 

 to find supplies for so large an army on the 

 march ; yet quails seem always so to time 

 their arrival at each temporary stopping- 

 place as exactly to fall in with some glut 

 in the insect-market. Only a few days 

 before they came here, for example, not a 

 beetle was to be seen upon the parched-up 

 heath ; but day before yesterday it rained 

 insects, so to speak ; and last night one 

 could hardly take a step down the Long 

 Valley without crushing small beetles under- 

 foot, against one's will, by the dozen. The 

 quails must somehow have got wind of the 

 fact that there was corn in Egypt, be it by 

 scent, or scouts, or some mysterious instinct ; 

 and here they are to-night, swarming up in 

 their thousands, to enter into possession of 

 their ancestral heritage. You should see 

 them wage war on the helpless longicorn ! 

 I hope they will nest here, as it is amusing 



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