122 IN NATURE'S WAYS 



Before the idea was accepted that woodcock do 

 indeed carry their young flying with a young bird 

 securely held between the thighs people often were 

 puzzled by the mysterious disappearance of the birds 

 from a nest. In one case it was determined to prevent 

 them going away, and a nest was ringed round with 

 hurdles, thatched closely with heather. The woodcock 

 continued to sit on her eggs, and was constantly 

 watched but not by night. And one morning she 

 and her young ones, in spite of the fence, had vanished. 



Gipsy-Folk 



"With regard to these peculiar people, the gipsies, one thing is 

 very remarkable, and especially as they came from a warmer climate 

 [from Egypt and the East], and that is, that while other beggars 

 lodge in barns, stables, and cow-houses, these sturdy savages seem 

 to pride themselves in braving the severities of winter, and in living 

 under the open sky the whole year round. 



Last September was as wet a month as ever was known ; and 

 yet, during those deluges, did a young gipsy girl lie in the midst of 

 one of our hop-gardens, on the cold ground, with nothing over her 

 but a piece of blanket, extended on a few hazel-rods bent hoop 

 fashion, and stuck into the earth at each end, in circumstances too 

 trying for a cow in the same condition ; yet within this garden there 

 was a large hop-kiln, into the chambers of which she might have 

 retired, had she thought shelter an object worthy her attention." 



