BOUND A LONDON COPSE. 159 



very fine and sunny till night, when a little rain fell. 

 The summer that followed was cold and ungenial, 

 with easterly winds, though fortunately it brightened 

 up somewhat for the harvest. A chaffinch sang on the 

 20th of February : all these are very early dates. 



One morning while I was watching these plovers, 

 a man with a gun got over a gate into the road. 

 Another followed, apparently without a weapon, but 

 as the first proceeded to take his gun to pieces, and 

 put the barrel in one pocket at the back of his coat, 

 and the stock in a second, it is possible that there was 

 another gun concealed. The coolness with which the 

 fellow did this on the highway was astounding, but 

 his impudence was surpassed by his stupidity, for at 

 the very moment he hid the gun there was a rabbit 

 out feeding within easy range, which neither of these 

 men observed. 



The boughs of a Scotch fir nearly reached to one 

 window. If I recollect rightly, the snow was on the 

 ground in the early part of the year, when a golden- 

 crested wren came to it. He visited it two or three 

 times a week for some time; his golden crest dis- 

 tinctly seen among the dark green needles of the fir. 



There are squirrels in the copse, and now and then 

 one comes within sight. In the summer there was 

 one in the boughs of an oak close to the garden. 

 Once, and once only, a pair of them ventured into 

 the garden itself, deftly passing along the wooden 

 palings and exploring a guelder rose-bush. The 

 pheasants which roost in the copse wander to it from 

 distant preserves. One morning in spring, before the 

 corn was up, there was one in a field by the copse 



