2 Spring 



marsh marigolds ' shone like fire,' for water oozed 

 through a swamp to a burn that chattered riverwards. 

 A mighty trunk had lain there for years, whereon, 

 if you sat motionless, you would presently see the 

 creatures come forth unconcernedly among the prim- 

 roses that bloomed near by. Towards dusk a 

 hedgehog led forth her annual litter of prickly pig- 

 lings, and a grey and ugly rat emerged from his hole. 

 But pleasantest it was to watch the feathered builders 

 at their work. Out and in from a little hole scarce 

 large enough to take your finger hopped the blue 

 titmouse, whose eggs could only be extracted by the 

 artful use of a crooked stick : the mother hissed like 

 a tiny snake when I ' clapped her in.' Where the 

 falling earth had parted a bed of violets in two, and 

 laid bare some twisting elm-roots, a shy yet impudent 

 and cunning eident-looking robin is ever coming and 

 going with morsels of hair and feather. The moist 

 earth teems with slugs and snails, and by the heap of 

 shells beside the big stone you know that here is a 

 favourite feeding-place of thrush and blackbird. Their 

 homes, too, are close at hand : the red-billed merle 

 whistling in the hedge is calling his mate, who on an 

 untidy home of wool, hair, and hay, is hatching her 

 dirty-grey eggs in a bunch of cut thorn ; while the 

 mavis has his nest compact, strong-walled, and well- 

 lined in the rough twigs low down on the wych elm's 

 trunk. Late in the season, if you are patient and 

 patience is hardly a virtue when it only means smoking 



