INDEX
Reading edition
Acherontia atropas, 217-19
Adders, the quest of, 15;
dreaming of, 19;
reasons for not killing, 20-28;
swallowing their young, 21;
measuring, 25;
capturing, 28-9;
beautiful colours in, 29-32
Adder-stone, 16
Agouti, beauty of the, 288
Aldebaran, an intelligent visitor from, 37-40
Aldermaston, snake preserve at, 17
Ants, a danger to fledgelings, 5-6; 9-10; 13-14
Aquilegia. See Columbine
Ardea cinerea and A. cocoi. See Heron
Arnold, Matthew, serpent poetry of, 195-7;
lines on fritillary, 331
Badger, encounter with a, 51-2
Barrett, Charles, on ants destroying fledgelings in Australia, 14
Bastard balm, beauty and rarity of the, 327
Bats, Pliny on, 33;
genealogy of, 33-6;
how Nature made, 37-40;
ferocity of, 41-2;
migration, 42-44;
sense organs, 44-6;
Cuvierand Spallanzani on extra senses in, 45-8;
J. G. Millais on faculties of, 49
Beddard, Dr. F. E., an authority on earthworms, 347
Bell’s British Quadrupeds, campaign against moles related in, 116
Bicho moro. See Blister-beetle
Birds, stories about, 74-83
Bird’s-foot trefoil, on a prehistoric earthwork, 323-5
Blister-beetle, ravages of the, 309;
appearance and smell of, 309;
a rapacious fly enemy of, 311
Book of the Serpent, a, 186
Breydon Water, herons fishing in, 102
Britton, J., a story of a fox told by, 56
Browne, Sir Thomas, on fear of serpents, 178
Browning, grandfather of the poet, 330
Byron, potato with vinegar devoured by, 308
Caius, Dr., the British dogs of, 250
Cantharides, 309
Cat, friendship of, with rat, 234-7
Chaucer, 318
Chequered daffodil. See Fritillary
Chillingham, the white bull of, his low place in the scheme of things, 34
Chinchilla, beauty and grace of, 287
Clodothrix odorifera, 349
Cobbe, Miss Frances Power, an admirer of Schopenhauer, 292
Columbine, the blue, in England, 328-31
Cormorant struggling with eel, 98;
as a pet, 233
Crotalus durissus, New England rattlesnake, 205
Cuvier, on senses of bats, 45-8
Daisies, on old Roman Road, 322
Danish farmer, imaginary conversation with a Wiltshire pig-keeper, 298-9
Darwin, on the origin of the domestic dog, 275;
on earthworms, 348-9
Daw, history of a tame, 77-8
Death by accident in wild life, 96
Death’s-head moth, seen in numbers, 217-19
Demeter, the Corn Mother, 312
Dog, the little red, character and anecdotes of, 238-46
Dogs, friendly with lamb, 128;
effect of muzzling order on, 247-264;
artificial instincts in, 272
Dolichotis, a Patagonian rodent, 287
Earthworms, effect of weed-killer on, 343;
habits of, in relation to lawns, 345-6;
London, 350-51;
heath and sandy soil, 351;
chalk soil, 351-2;
cause of wide distribution of, 352-6
Elsie Venner Infelix, 209
Epicauta adspersa. See Blister-beetle
Fayrer, Sir Joseph, a great ophiologist, 197
Fer-de-lance, an impression of the, 188
Flea, origin of the, 36
Flowers, beauty and charm of wild, 316;
adorning waste lands and ruins, 322;
on an old Roman road, 323;
on a prehistoric earthwork, 323-5;
rare and local, 326
Fox, beauty of the, 50-54;
sentiment concerning the, 55;
a South American music-loving, 58;
adventures of a three-legged, 59-62
Fox terrier, character of the, 253
Fritillary, appearance of, seen growing in profusion, 331-4;
beauty and singularity of the, 334-6
Geranium, G. pyrenaicum, 327;
the blue, 327
Ghost-moth, dance of the, 221-2
Glanville, Ernest, on the African Icanti, 158-9
Goat’s-beard, various folk-names of, 317-18;
singular habit of, 318-22
Gould, earliest writer on habits of ants, 251
Grass of Parnassus, beauty of the, 327
Grey, Viscount, squirrels tamed by, 233
Guanaco, a pet, in Patagonia and its habits, 125
Guinea (or Ginny) flower. See Fritillary
Guira cuckoo, a mouse-killer, 97
Hake, Dr. Gordon, serpent poetry of, 197-200
Hawk-moths, 217;
death’s-head, 217-19;
crimson underwing, 219-221;
humming-bird, 222-4
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, character of his genius, 203-4;
in search of a weed, 338
Heron, bathing, 93;
strange adventure with a, 94-6;
flight of the, 103;
a ghostly bird, 104;
as a table-bird, 106-12
Heronry, a great, 47
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, story of a serpent girl, 201-9
Hopley, Miss C. C, on the serpent’s tongue, 139;
her pet slow-worm, 233
Horse, habit of a tamed wild, 119-122;
twitching muscle in the, 229
House-martin, accidentally killed, 98
Humming-bird, flight in the, 47;
hawk-moth, 222-4
Huxley, on monographs, 190
Icanti, African serpent myth, 159
James, Henry, on living in a pine wood, 3
John-go-to-bed-at-noon, singular habit of, 316
Keats, serpent poetry of, 200
Kidd, Benjamin, humble-bees tamed by, 232, 280
Lacepede, on the serpent’s uses, 136
Lagidium, an Andean rodent, 287
Lang, Andrew, on drawing-room dogs, 292-4
Lawns, feeling about, 337;
Sir Walter Raleigh quoted, 337-8;
in relation to earthworms, 340-344
Leibnitz, on a talking dog, 279
Lemurs, beauty and docility of the, 286-7
Lindsay, Dr. Lauder, Mental Evolution quoted, 279;
on the dog’s spiritual nature, 288
Long, Sir Walter, dog-muzzling order of, 252
Luys, Dr., the revolving mirror of, 149
Macroglossa stellatarum, 224
Maize Mother, ancient worship of the, 312
Mallow, geranium-leafed scented, 327
Marmoset, charm of the domesticated, 285
Marmot, the prairie, 287-8
Mental evolution of animals, 281
Merry-lee-dance-a-pole, folk-name of a hawk-moth, 222
Millais, J. G., on the senses of bats, 49
Mole, whether injurious or not, 113-118;
persecution of the, in France, 116;
impending destruction of the, 116;
the strenuous, 225-7;
twitching muscle of the, 227-31
Morris, Mowbray, on dogs and their detractors, 291
Mother of the Waters, the mythical serpent, 169
Mus decumanus, 233
Mushrooms, growing in rings, 164
Natterjack, music of the, 89
Nunn, Mr. Joseph, the sparrow’s friend, 114
Origin of Species, 214
Owl, its supernatural reputation, 165
Painted snipe, caught in a mussel-shell, 99
Peaches and peach-stones, 307
Pig, social disposition of the, 295;
a friendly, 297-302;
a forest animal, 298;
eating elder-berries, 301
Pine-snake, beauty and motions of the, 155
Pine woods, effect of living in, 1;
wild life in, 4-14
Pipit, a fascinated, 149
Potato, the wild, 303;
cultivated, 304;
eaten with oil and vinegar, 307;
ravages of the blister-beetle, 309-11;
Mother of the, 312;
manner of cooking the, in England, 313;
what the doctors say, 314
Raleigh, Sir Walter, a shining Elizabethan, 312;
his praise of gardens and lawns, 337-8
Rat, the unloved, 233;
friendship with cat, 234-7
Rice Mother, 312
Romanes, Dr., Mental Evolution of Animals, 281
Rooks, their loose social law, 79-83
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds: Bird and Tree Day essays by school children, 6
Ruskin, on the serpent’s tongue, 134;
on the serpent myth, 153;
on serpent motions, 154
Russell, Dr., of Brighton, 1
Sanchoniathan, the Phoenician, 153, 191
Savernake Forest, a fox in, 52
Seal and conger eel, duel between, 98
Selous, on instinctive fear in horses, 176
Serpent, use of its tongue, 134-52;
myths of a great, 158-9, 169-71;
strangeness, 153;
origin and universality of worship, 161;
instinctive fear of the, 174-8;
Satanic theory, 178-80;
a Book of the, 186-91;
the, in literature, 191
Sheep, individuality in, 123;
a book-destroying, 124;
a friend of dogs, 127
Sheldrake, beauty of the, 108
Shelley, his Witch of Atlas, 157
Silchester, the forest of, 84;
excavation at, 347-9
Snake, a preserver of the, 16;
taming a wild, 91-2;
a frog-hunter, 144;
shyness, 192;
a tame, 280
Spallanzani, experiments on bats, 45-8
Sparrow-hawks, in pine wood, 4, 7
Spider, strategy of hunting, 145;
as a pet, 232
Squirrel, fable of a, 63-9;
adventures of a migrating, 70-73;
migratory impulses, 70;
taming the, 233;
volatile character of the, 286
Stradling, Dr. Arthur, on the serpent’s tongue, 139
Stag, lower than the bat, 34
Starlings, killed by sparrow-hawk, 8
Stoat, a water-vole hunting, 86
Tabley, Lord de, ghost-moth poetry of, 222
Tehuelches, children of the Patagonian, 163
Thoreau, on the squirrel, 286;
his “handful of rice” 297
Throstle, desire for worms of the caged, 75-7
Toad, the, as traveller, 84-9;
concert music and marriage customs, 88-9;
pleased to be caressed, 90;
tongue and fly-catching of, 90-1
Traherne, the Herefordshire mystic, 224
Tregarthen, J. C., anecdotes of fox and otters reared with hounds, 132
Twitching muscle, mole, 228-31;
dog, 228;
horse, 229;
man, 229-230;
hare, 231
Tyndall and Hindhead, 1
Tyrant-bird, rapacious habits of a, 97
Vernal squill, first appearance of, 327
Viper, Vipera berus. See Adder
Vizcacha, account of the, 130
Wasps, spiteful temper, 210-12;
brilliant colouring, 213;
diabolical instincts of, 214
Waterton, on heron’s fishing, 93
White, Gilbert, on a tame snake, 280
Willughby, the ornithologist, 250
Wright, Sir Almroth, on our skin-scraping habit, 338
Youatt, on a strange dog superstition, 277
THE END
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