NOVEMBER. 291 



across, followed by three dogs. The wild animal, on reaching the 

 open country, soon gained ground, and the dogs were left far in the 

 rear, much to the disgust of the three louts whose ill-trained dogs 

 they were. 



The Holly is a picture now in its scarlet and green livery. Here 

 and there a patch of russet brown calls for our admiration, but most 

 trees have now shed their Summer tresses, although the Oak seems 

 very reluctant to cast off its exquisite foliage. The cones on the 

 Spruce Fir are very prominent now, as also the cones on what I 

 believe to be the Stone Pine. 



Heard a fluty Blackbird singing in a wicker cage hung outside a 

 cottage window. Watched some Rabbits feeding in a field skirting a 

 wood, and was amused by a Blackbird flying quite close to them, and 

 apparently startling the wary creatures. Query: Did the Blackbird 

 frighten the Rabbits, or was the fact of the bird being in such a flurry 

 a signal to the animals that danger was ahead? 



On a roadside pond a score of Geese attracted our notice; they 

 were in excellent fettle. 



A few names of the farm and woods in this district may be inter- 

 esting to my readers : Farms : KettlewelPs, Megdell's, Butler's, Beech 

 Hyde, Hog-end, Old Jerome's, New Jerome's, Southend, Three 

 Cherrytrees, Woodhall, Bottom House, Woodwell's, Dane End, 

 Baker's, Woodend, Corner Farm, Windridge, Hedge's, Marshall's 

 Wick, Shafford, and Plaistow's Farms, Woods: Kentish, The Vistas, 

 Brick-kiln, Windmill Hill, High Wood, Oakwood, Prse Wood, Birch, 

 Park, Cuckman's, Great Furzefield, Home Wood, Batchwood, 

 Sparrowswick, Ladies' Grove, Whitehedge Spring, Square Wood, 

 Scrubs Wood, St. Julian's, Verulam, Appspond, Blackwater, Pancake, 

 Deadman, Chandler's Grove, Skys, Chalk-dell, Beech Bottom, Bush, 

 Green, and Kilmart's Spring Woods. 



12th. Still cold; raining. The Dahlias and the Nasturtiums 

 in the garden have received their death warrant from the frost of the 

 last two or three nights. The warrant has been duly signed, sealed, 

 and delivered. 



Mr. Arthur Martin, of Bournemouth, writes to me under to-day's 

 date to say that he has seen the Nightjar distinctly sitting crosswise 

 on a branch of a tree as birds in general do, and not lengthwise as is 

 so generally supposed. I can only say that I have had many 

 opportunities of studying this useful and interesting bird, and I have 



