



Produced by Al Haines









  HAMPSHIRE
  DAYS


  BY

  W. H. HUDSON



  1923
  J. M. DENT & SONS LTD.
  LONDON & TORONTO
  PARIS: J. M. DENT ET FILS




All rights reserved


PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN




  INSCRIBED TO
  SIR EDWARD AND LADY GREY
  NORTHUMBRIANS
  WITH HAMPSHIRE WRITTEN IN THEIR HEARTS




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I.

Autumn in the New Forest--Red colour in mammals--November mildness--A
house by the Boldre--An ideal spot for small birds--Abundance of
nests--Small mammals and the weasel's part--Voles and mice--Hornet
and bank-vole--Young shrews--A squirrel's visit--Green woodpecker's
drumming-tree--Drumming of other species--Beauty of great spotted
woodpecker--The cuckoo controversy--A cuckoo in a robin's
nest--Behaviour of the cuckoo--Extreme irritability--Manner of
ejecting eggs and birds from the nest--Loss of
irritability--Insensibility of the parent robins--Discourse on
mistaken kindness, pain and death in nature, the annual destruction
of bird life, and the you