A Woodland Trac.kdy 85 



these burying-beetles are carrioii-feedcrs, \vh(ise 

 larvae thrive on dead aiul decayiiij^ animals ; and 

 they desire to bury the corpse in order to keep 

 it intact for their own brood, without interference 

 on the part of other and more powerful carrion- 

 eaters. When successful, they cover the mouse 

 entirely with mould, and thus leave their youn<^ 

 supplied with a liberal diet. 



But hidden amonj^ the greenery of a tree over- 

 head, a cynical butcher-bird is calmly watching 

 those insect sextons from the corner of his eye. 

 As soon as enouj^h of them have collected on 

 the spot, he will swoop down upon their bodies 

 unseen from above, and will carry them off to 

 spike them on his own pet thorns for the benefit of 

 his struggling young family. Thus does parental 

 affection war imconsciously against parental affec- 

 tion. Each kind fights only for its own hand, 

 and regards only the young of its own species. 

 For as Tennyson says well in " Maud " : — 



" Nature is one with rapine, a harm no preacher can heal ; 

 Tlie Mayfly is torn by the swallow, the sparrow speared 



by the shiike, 

 And the whole little wood where I sit is a world of 



plunder and prey." 



No. 6 shows us one member of the butcher- 

 bird's young family, just hatclied and fledged, in 

 his streaky grey plumage, and beginning to go 

 out upon the world for himself. He is trying 

 to catch an insect on a thorn above him. It 

 also suggests to us the appropriate moral that if 



