When Darkness has fallen. 99 



itself into a gorge, and runs deep betwixt shelving 

 rocks. The water ceaselessly moans and chafes 

 down there in the darkness. Badgers have their 

 haunt deep in the brambles, their tortuous 

 burrows running far out among the boulders. 

 From the tree-tops we may watch them digging 

 for roots and wasps' nests, and now and then 

 snapping at flies. Passing the deep dub by 

 the " Force," we find old Phil, the fisher, 

 plying his silent trade even thus into the 

 night. Phil leads his own life, and is contem- 

 plative as becomes his craft. Nature's every 

 sight and sound he has, as it were, by heart, 

 and he makes friends even with the creeping 

 things. As we watch, a salmon, fresh from the 

 sea, leaps from the silvery foam and flashes in 

 the moonlight. 



One of the greatest night-helps to the game- 

 keeper in staying the depredations of poachers 

 is the lapwing. It is the lightest sleeper of 

 the fields, starting up from the fallows and 

 screaming upon the slightest alarm. Poachers 

 dread the detection of this bird, and the keeper 

 closely follows its cry. A hare rushing wildly 

 past will put the plover away from its roost ; and 

 when hares act thus in the darkness, there is 

 generally some good cause for it. The skylark and 

 and woodlark are both occasional night-singers, 

 and it is common to hear cuckoos call in the 



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