216 JOTTINGS ABOUT BIRDS. 



it has the immense advantages of fresh pure air, 

 variety of scene, and a sense of liberty and freedom 

 that no town dweller can ever realize. The ethics 

 of caravan life may be rather loose, and the young 

 gipsy may be taught from his cradle (should he 

 ever have been blessed with such an infantile 

 luxury) that game and rabbits are as much the 

 poor man's as the squire's ; yet, after all, there is 

 more to be said in favour of his snaring a rabbit 

 or strangling a Pheasant than there is against the 

 London gamin's act of picking a pocket or rifling 

 a till. 



But we must hasten on along the lanes under 

 the meeting canopy of the hedges, past the coppices 

 where the woodmen are already at work peeling 

 the bark from the oak-trees, and making themselves 

 hungry as Hawks with their healthy labour; on by 

 the broad red-earth fields which patient plodding 

 teams are tilling for mangolds; past the swampy 

 corners where the golden spikes and broad green 

 sword-shaped leaves of the iris hide the pools where 

 the cattle drink ; on and on, along lane after lane, 

 where almost each step displays some fresh object 

 of interest to him who loves Nature and Nature's 

 haunts. The lanes are now melodious with the 

 songs of birds. True, no Nightingales enthral us 



