OCTOBER. 273 



my friend who was not the gamekeeper but the river-keeper of 

 the good the bird does during the greater part of the year, but I am 

 afraid all my arguments wjere futile), Pied Wagtail (several rather noisy 

 on the ploughed lands), Ring Dove (the most prominent bird to-day; 

 present in hundreds. Beech trees abound here; they are very fond 

 of the fruit), Yellow Bunting, Bullfinch (hereby hangs a tale. The 

 rural policeman and the keeper were both very anxious for me to see 

 "the white birds that be flying about this last two months," and we 

 repaired to a waste thickly planted with Hawthorns and Briars, 

 bordering a wood. It was here these white birds had been seen, and 

 I must see them. We searched through the bushes in vain, and had 

 almost given up the hunt when, sure enough, a pure white bird flew 

 across the path in front of us. I stalked it carefully, and with the aid 

 of my powerful binoculars I identified the bird pretty satisfactorily as 

 an albino variety of the more generally rosy-breasted Bullfinch. The 

 bird was very restless, and did not expose itself for more than a 

 minute or two, but it was a picture in its absolute snowy whiteness. I 

 am told that a nest of albino Bullfinches was taken near this locality 

 some years ago, and a white Linnet quite recently); Wild Duck (some 

 hundreds seen on the lake), Teal (we put up three as we were rambling 

 by the water), Mute Swan (a score or so on the lake), Chinese Geese 

 (a pair of these birds observed; they seemed very tame; they are 

 really a very beautifully-marked Goose), Kingfisher (had the pleasure 

 of watching one of these birds fishing. We happened to be in the 

 boathouse, and he was perched on an iron fence which runs into the 

 water some yards. We were only about a dozen yards from him, so 

 had a good view. How quick he is, to be sure; down and up again 

 in much less time than it takes to tell the tale, then off right down the 

 water, never flying very high, and then alighting at another favourite 

 vantage ground), Moorhen (a good many dibbing about in the tall 

 rushes fringing the lake), Lapwing (several put up in the moist 

 meadows, a favourite haunt, too, of the Snipe), Rook (in large flocks), 

 and Chaffinch. 



The ground is now strewn with the fallen fruits of the Horse 

 Chestnut, the Beech, and the Acorn. We meet some boys gathering 

 the former, and as they see our friend the policeman approaching, 

 they scamper for their very lives, leaving all their gathered " conquers " 

 in the roadway. The policeman tells us they had as much right to 

 pick up the fallen fruit as he has, and called the fellows a pack of 

 fools for taking the trouble to pick up the Chestnuts and then run 

 away and leave theml 



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