68 MY LIFE AS A NATURALIST 



Where trout are reared the Heron, Kingfisher, and Otter are 

 sadly destructive, and I have had several specimens of these 

 three animals through my hands within the last few years. One 

 Heron that was caught in a trap lost the whole of one foot, which, 

 inspection proved, was already minus a toe, evidence of previous 

 " conviction." 



It is remarkable to notice how wild creatures manage to exist 

 when accidents of this nature befall them. For some time I 

 used to come across a Stoat which hobbled about on three legs, 

 having lost one in a trap. The poor beast was eventually run 

 over, and killed, by a motor car, when the former was crossing a 

 narrow countrv lane. 



FIG. 31. YOUNG SWIFT. 



The other day I was shown a pet Canary which has lived 

 happily for several years with one eye and one leg, and my sister's 

 garden has been visited for two or three Winter's by a one-legged 

 Blue Tit, which balances its pert little body quite cleverly on the 

 coconut husk put out for the purpose of attracting these feathered 

 acrobats. 



Colonies of birds are always interesting, and two instances 

 occur to me out of several which my notebook brings to mind. 

 At St Pauls Walden Bury, Hertfordshire, the residence of my 

 friend Lord Strathmore, I counted over eighty nests of the 

 House Martin, surely a record for one homestead, and in one 

 large Elm tree near Baldock there are, season after season, no 

 less than sixty Rooks' nests. 



