AMONG THE HILLS. 53 



Rising early and going to bed early, with good 

 plain food, keep a man trim and in full vigour when 

 others have waxed feeble. It quickens the sight, too, 

 this healthy life : a man who uses rod or gun as a 

 field naturalist never needs to look twice at a thing. 

 Such were some of the foresters of these hills and 

 vales in the days of my youth : some of their descen- 

 dants have made their mark in distant lands, where 

 their knowledge of wood-craft has served them in 

 good stead. They could not bear the changes here, 

 and sought in far-away backwoods what they had 

 lost in their own land. Raven, crow, falcon, hawk, 

 and owl hunted here at that time. In the evening, 

 on the top of the Holmbury moor, you could see a 

 flight of harriers, male and female, or, as the wood- 

 landers term them, blue hawk and ringtail, a most 

 interesting sight ; the grey and the brown bird flying 

 side by side some little distance apart, certainly, but 

 still in a line. They are looking for no lark or pipit, 

 nor for any of the song-thrush family, but are in 

 quest of nobler game. 



Bad luck to the blackcock, pheasant, or partridge 

 that shows for even one brief moment in any open 

 space ; for when the quarry is sighted, the flapping 



