SOME FEATHERED BUILDERS 39 



How the beautiful creature has got mixed up 

 with things evil in woodland traditions, I am 

 not able to say ;_ one thing is certain, the tra- 

 ditions about him are not confined to England. 

 It may be that some of the creatures that form 

 part of the bird's food require a lot of circum- 

 venting at times, and that this has developed 

 habits of appropriating unlawfully, of theft and 

 cunning. When shot or trapped not a com- 

 mon occurrence in some parts now certain 

 matters are found in his stomach that tell 

 against him a little from some folks' point of 

 view ; but then other matters of quite a dif- 

 ferent nature are also found, which he has also 

 disposed of and these are quite looked over. 

 One or two men that I know make it a rule to 

 examine the stomachs or crops, as the case may 

 be, of all the birds that pass through their 

 hands in the various seasons : sportsmen-natu- 

 ralists these are, who keep the record of the 

 various creatures, or parts of them, which are 

 found in these also such vegetable matters 

 as can be made out. This is very interesting ; 

 but they would not dream of stating that, be- 

 cause certain matters had been found in a bird's 

 crop or stomach, they would always be found 

 there : as the seasons change, so does the food. 



