July 2%—Sinee breakfast time this {this morning I have really been wondering if there is any bad luck coming to mo; for if it is unlucky to have a hare cross your path, as sailors would have us believe, what must it be to have a hare running round and round you? But T anticipate. Walking in the hills soon after the sun was up, I nearly stumbled on a thin and weakly looking hare hiding' beneath the bushes: it looked at me.
Jplaintively and scurried into fresh cover: fifty yards ahead the same share appeared before me again. and again some little distance away. [This gave me rather a queer feeling, for here was a hare which, instead Jof running away, was apparently fol-in a high-pitched voice... ing up, saw a bird of prey, which seen against the bright sunlight, 1 could only guess. (by its light colour ing) to be a female Hen-Harrier. [The bird continued to scream, as if in anger, and everywhere I moved the sickly-looking hare popped up in front of me again. On focussing the bird with my glasses I noticed that it had a badly torn wing, as if it had Tost several feathers and some blood in a Aght: finally as T did not move further and the hare stayed [crouched under a scrub-oak, the bird. moved off still screaming. The hare took another took at me and ran don't blame it. *While Vouching for the accuracy this story I can only explain it by suggesting that a wounded bird, un-Jable to tackle its ordinary prey, had Jdecided to tackle a sickly animal; jand the latter, choosing the lesser of two evils, decided to cling to me, Jacting on the assumption that would frighten the bird. When T got home the cook gave me a bad for breakfast, so I Rope that finishes the bed Tuck.
July 25—When you are fond of studying insects there is no doubt you are loath to kill them; and I Jotten remind myself of the old rhyme dealing with a young man of Harwar-Jden, who, when taking a walk in the garwarden, if he trod on a bug, a Worm oF slug, would take off his hat and say "Parwarden." Take the question of ants, now: if an ants' nest is seen anywhere near the house, my wife (ike any good housewife 1 suppose) wants me to pour boiling water on it to Kill the ants: 1, on the other hand, am all for keeping. the fants" nest. bgeause I love. watching it; and thus do civil wars break out. As an example of how amusing ants tean be T will record an event which took place in a irlend's verandah in [Shanghai. On the tiled ilaer of the verandah stood supported a dwart'azalea tree and in'addition to this a fern with tong narrow drooping leaves: two of these Teaves hung down from the. plant and just touched the ground, exactly fas i€ they were "ramps" up the side of a warehouse or [where inside the rock, which it contained, was 'While we sat at' tea a number of, {tiny biscuit crumbs were dropped on the floor and quickly spotted by the fant sentinels (I presume they were smelt, for T believe these ants are blind): immediate action ensued, for Jdown one of the ramps came' an Jorderly squad of ant coolies, each of which came straight across the verandah, seized a tiny crumb and returned in Indian file up the other ramp (or leaf): this process continued so long as we dropped crumbs (the tinier the better) and if any single ant tried to climb back by the "down ramp" he was promptly turn-Jed back until "he ascended by the leat to "up trate." Here, in fact, was a perfect system Jot one-way traffic organized by the Jant Police. I began to wonder if they had signs inside to say "No Jparking here before 12 Noon, etc.": but 1 don't think so....ants are most practical and sensible creatures.
July 28—For some days past I have Jbeen watching numbers of those large White-rumped Swifts which pass us in JShanghai, far overhead, in the course Jot their migrations: realizing that they must be breeding in the neighbourhood of Wethaiwel, 1 looked up the latest and most authoritative book for details and there found this most intriguing statement:—"Captain H. L. [Cochrane has given the first and only record, so far, of the finding of a breeding place of this Swift in China So I promptly made contact with' "a youthful egg-collector who had recently procured an addled Switt's egg, with the result that next morning we set forth, bright and Jearly, in a sailing sampan. Arrived at Jo small rocky islet, about 40 feet rounded by White-rumped Swifts,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.