SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 31 



creature shall contribute in some way to the 

 support of another. The bare question of 

 cruelty is not to be considered for one moment ; 

 for predaceous creatures kill quickly, and before 

 the hunted one can fully make out what is the 

 matter it is dead practice in this, as in other 

 matters, making perfect. 



Looking at creatures, however, does not hurt 

 them, and that is all I for one do, and have 

 done for a long time now. How to get near a 

 creature without alarming it is the chief, and in 

 fact the only, thing to remember. 



Yet forty years' experience of wood-craft will 

 not under certain influences, though you may 

 watch patiently for weeks get you a sight of 

 the badger, although you know well that he 

 and his mate are within a few yards of you ; and 

 again some other time, when you are not think- 

 ing about him, he will cross the path in front of 

 you. Here is this creature's home by daylight : 

 a large hole under the roots of a great beech, 

 which on either side run into wild riot ; a 

 plashed bank hedge, one to fight shy of when 

 fox-hunting, for the drop is a bad one. 



If possible, we wish to see him come out of 

 this when the dews are beginning to fall. There 

 will be no need to get near to it, for the glass 



