134 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



slow-beating flight of theirs to a neighbouring and keeper- 

 less planting, that game knows not and where all things are 

 amiss. 



And when the covert is secure to himself and a bold 

 missel-thrush mayhap, and his young are hatched, you 

 may see this terror of the wood hunting along the hedge- 

 rows for helpless, yawning nestlings or feeble flappers, for 

 all is grist that comes to his mill at that season, especially 

 redpolls and linnets ; and the flappers know it, for they hie 

 to the hedgerows for cover, like startled mice, as soon as 

 the shrilly-voiced ranger darkens the sky, which is fre- 

 quently, for he eats little and often. 



And when the fledglings are full flappers, the old fenmen 

 sometimes tame them, and by slitting their tongues give 

 them the gift of speech ; and apt pupils they prove, some 

 imitating the cackling of his mongrel hens, the barking of 

 his still more mongrel curs, and even his own harsh voice, 

 saying, "Jacob, poor boy," or calling loudly in unknown 

 accents, " Boat ahoy ! " imitating the foot-passengers' voices 

 at the ferry, and answering himself as doth the ferryman — 

 " Ho ! ho ! " Nearly all things he will imitate but the 

 cuckoo — that roystering bird is safe from being plagiarised. 

 Ask the titlarks why ? And when the oak-trees hang 

 heavy with acorns the jays are happy, for they love acorns, 

 holding them with one claw and eating them as a monkey 

 does a nut. So precious are they that they will store them 

 under the earth, stamping their treasures down as carefully 

 as any pirate might his plunder. 



But the keeper is ever on the jay's track, and he is grow- 

 ing scarce ; and so the world grows duller day by day as 

 the gay bits of colour are being killed in order that game 

 may flourish. 



