could hope only for tolerance. The birds readily
understood; they appreciated that they were seen and watched, and their
manners changed accordingly. The first one of the black-and-white gentry
who entered the grove discovered my comrade, and announced the presence
of the enemy by a loud cry, in what somebody has aptly called a
"frontier tone of voice." Instantly another appeared and added his
remarks; then another, and still another, till within five minutes there
were ten or twelve excited magpies, shouting at the top of their voices,
and hopping and flying about her head, coming ever nearer and nearer, as
if they meditated a personal attack. I did not really fear it, but I
kept close watch, while remaining motionless, in the hope that they
would not notice me. Vain hope! nothing could escape those sharp eyes
when once the bird was aroused. After they had said what they chose to
my friend, who received the taunts and abuse of the infuriated mob in
meek silence, lifting not her voice to reply, they turned the stream of
their eloquence upon me.

I was equally passive, for indeed I felt that they had a grievance. We
have no right to expect birds to tell one human being from another, so
long as we, with all our boasted intelligence, cannot tell one crow or
one magpie from another; and all the week they had suffered persecution
at the hands of the village boys. Young magpies, nestlings, were in
nearly every house, and the birds had endured pillage, and doubtless
some of them death. I did not blame the grieved parents for the
reception they gave us; from their point of view we belonged to the
enemy.

After the storm had swept by, and while we sat there waiting to see if
the birds would return, one of the horses of the pasture made his
appearance on the side where I sat, now eating the top of a rosebush,
now snipping off a flower plant that had succeeded in getting two leaves
above the ground, but at every step coming nearer me. It was plain that
he contemplated retiring to this shady grove, and, not so observing as
the magpies, did not see that it was already occupied. When he was not
more than ten feet away, I snatched off my sun hat and waved it before
him, not wishing to make a noise. He stopped instantly, stared wildly
for a moment, as if he had never seen such an apparition, then wheeled
with a snort, flung out his heels in disrespect, and galloped off down
the field.

The incident was insignificant, but the result