EARLY SPRING IN SAVERNAKE FOREST 91 



their ringing, yelping cries may be heard at all 

 hours of the day in any part of the forest. In 

 March, when they are nesting, their numbers are 

 concentrated in those parts of the wood where 

 the trees, beech and oak, are very old and have 

 hollow trunks. In some places you will find many 

 acres of wood where every tree is hollow and appar- 

 ently inhabited. Yet there are doubtless some 

 hollow trees into which the daw is not permitted 

 to intrude. The wood-owl is common here, and 

 is presumably well able to hold his castle against 

 all aggressors. If one could but climb into the airy 

 tower, and, sitting invisible, watch the siege and 

 defence and the many strange incidents of the war 

 between these feathered foes ! The daw, bold 

 yet cautious, venturing a little way into the dim 

 interior, with shrill threats of ejectment, ruffling 

 his grey pate and peeping down with his small, 

 malicious, serpent-like grey eyes ; the owl puffing 

 out his tiger- coloured plumage, and lifting to the 

 light his pale, shield-like face and luminous eyes, 

 — would indeed be a rare spectacle ; and then, 

 what hissings, snappings, and beak-clatterings, and 

 shrill, cat-like, and yelping cries ! But, although 

 these singular contests go on so near us, a few 

 yards above the surface, Savernake might be in the 



