A WOOD BY THE SEA 59 



ghosts of scores and hundreds of perished ones; that 

 they had come out of the earth and, unable to resist 

 the contagion of his example and the "memory of 

 an ancient joy," were all madly barking their ghost 

 barks and scampering invisible over the sands. 



The chief thing to see was the crows coming in to 

 roost from about four to six o'clock, arriving con- 

 tinually in small parties of from two or three to thirty 

 or forty birds, until it was quite dark. The roosting- 

 place has been shifted two or three times since I have 

 known the wood, and, by a lucky chance, on the last 

 occasion of their going to a fresh place I witnessed 

 the removal and discovered its cause. For two even- 

 ings I had noticed a good deal of unrest among the 

 roosting birds. This would begin at dusk, after they 

 were all quietly settled down, when all at once there 

 would be an outburst of loud angry cawings at one 

 point, as unmistakable in its meaning as that sudden 

 storm of indignation and protest frequently heard 

 in one part of our House of Commons when the 

 susceptibilities of the party or group of persons sitting 

 together at that spot have been wantonly hurt by 

 the honourable member addressing the House. It 

 would subside only to break out by-and-by at some 

 other spot, perhaps fifty yards away; and at some 

 points the birds would rise up and wheel and hover 

 overhead, cawing loudly for a minute or two before 

 settling down again. 



I concluded that it was some creature dangerous 

 to birds, probably a fox, prowling about among 

 the trees and creating an alarm whenever they 



