36 By Leafy Ways. 



since Jenner made known, as the results of careful 

 observations, his discovery that the young cuckoo did 

 actually turn out the other nestlings, and stated further 

 that a hollow in its back which disappeared when 

 the bird was a fortnight old, was evidently intended to 

 assist in this process of summary eviction. 



The rambler in the greenwood may think himself 

 alone, but- there are many anxious observers of his 

 every movement ; keen eyes follow him as he strolls 

 unconsciously along. A woodpecker watches him 

 from behind a sheltering stem. A shrike leaves a half- 

 impaled cockchafer struggling on a thorn, and drops 

 silently into the depth of the hedgerow. A squirrel, 

 lying flat along a bough overhead, peers curiously down 

 through his leafy covert. A party of young weasels, 

 rolling over and over and purring like kittens at play, 

 pause in their frolic and crouch in the long grass, 

 watching sharply as his steps go by. 



A troop of jays, making their first venture out into 

 the great green world, and crying querulously as 

 they leap lightly from tree to tree, catch sight of a 

 moving figure, and steal quietly away into more distant 

 cover. 



By no means so noiseless are the manners of the 

 magpie. A note of alarm from -one -of -the old hands 

 is instantly answered from all directions by the sharp, 

 clear, and scurrilous responses of the whole excited 

 family. 



There is never silence in the woodland. 



