48 UNDER GREEN LEA VES 
better than that from the covers adjoining. But what 
with one thing and another, the man who rented it 
did not have anything like the head that his neigh- 
bours had, much to his own surprise. Careless and 
indiscriminate trapping and shooting does not often 
produce good results. Where so-called vermin are 
popped at all the day long, and the traps set for 
them get filled with the game itself, the creatures 
will seek sanctuaries where so short-sighted a policy 
is not in force. 
Wood-pigeons shoot up with a flap-flap-flap ; 
they soar above, where they float with outspread 
wings and tail like giant tree-pipits ; then they settle 
again ; their mates are near, sitting on their nests, or 
rather their twig platforms. That blackbird must 
have given the signal for harmony, for on all sides 
the thrushes sing. Loud above the other voices 
sound the notes of the missel-thrush. But he sings 
best in stormy weather; on a calm, golden-tinted 
morning such as this his voice has too trumpet-like a 
tone. 
And now there is a lull, during which we hear 
close to us a plaintive hurried song. There is some- 
thing that arrests your attention at once, giving one 
the idea that the bird was compelled through some 
inner stress to sing, yet against his will. We can see 
