CHAPTER IV 



A FAIRY FAUNA 



Insect life of the downs — Common snail — Adder-like colouring of 

 some snails— The "thrushes' anvil" — Eccentric motions of 

 flies — Peculiar colouring of some flies — The cow-dung fly 

 — A thyme-loving fly — Butterflies — Disposition and habits 

 of the small blue — Sleep in insects — The humble-bee — Intoxi- 

 cating effect of thistle flower on bees — The unknown faculties 

 of insects — De Quincey's " gluttonism.'' 



In the last chapter we had an account of a fairy 

 flora, as we call the numerous minute herbaceous 

 plants, mixed with small grasses and clovers, which 

 clothe the sheep-fed downs in a grassy and flowery 

 mantle. The fairy flora has a fairy fauna to match 

 it. Where there is no bush vegetation nor heath 

 and rough herbage for shelter, there are no birds. 

 At all events none breed on the naked unsheltered 

 ground, unless it be a wheatear that makes his nest 

 in an old rabbit-hole in some open stony spot. But 

 of the birds and beasts of downland I shall treat in 

 the next chapter. The creatures that mostly impress 

 us in all the open shelterless places are the insects. 

 We think less of the innumerable small inconspicuous 

 snails, whitey-grey like the small fragments of chalk 

 seen in the turf; indeed we think of them not at all 



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