SCIEXCE OF THE WILDS, rOi:TRY OF SPOIiT. 185 



times uiLsuccessfully, but at times we succeed in 

 slaying the depredator. 



There was a white oayI that used to come by 

 night into the bushes after the starlings, and for 

 a time met with Avonderful sport, for his bag of 

 birds was occasionally so large that he lias brought 

 in and left in a cow-shed, where he never roosted, 

 as many as seven starlings. I liked the owl better 

 than the starlino-s ; but his nocturnal visitations 

 were attended with so much fluttering and noise 

 among the birds, that tlie retriever, in his house 

 on the lawn, Avas perpetually barking at what he 

 supposed was mischief, and arousing me. 



One anecdote as to the beautiful affection of a 

 lurcher to her whelps, and then to other matters. 

 Had I been aware of this fact in time, there is, 

 or was, a chance of my saddling myself with a 

 colony of lurchers for life, for I must have loved 

 the dam and all her litter.^ 



One morning, at day-break, one of the keepers 

 found the lurcher caught by the foredeg in a 

 severe steel trap. While in that })Osition she had 

 given birth to a litter of puppies, if I recollect 

 rightly, five in number, two dead and tln-ee alivCi 

 With the poor little paw left at liberty she had 



