104 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



girding of ox-eye and blue-tit, the angry, percussive note 

 of the wren, the low wailing of the robin, and the still 

 sadder dunnock, and the small plaintive cries of the 

 tree warblers. 



What an idle demonstration, what a fuss about 

 nothing it seems ! The minute weasel is on the track 

 of a vole or a wood-mouse and cannot harm the birds. 

 Yes, he can take the nestlings from the robin's and 

 willow- wren's nests, and from other nests built on the 

 ground, but what has the chaffinch to do with it all ? 

 Can it be that there is some fatal weakness in birds, in 

 spite of their wings, in this bird especially, such as 

 exists in voles, and mice, and rabbits, and in frogs and 

 lizards, which brings them down to destruction, and of 

 which they are in some way conscious ? Some months 

 ago there was a correspondence in the Field which 

 touched upon this very subject. One gentleman wrote 

 that he had found three freshly-killed adult cock 

 chaffinches in a weasel's nest, and he asked in conse- 

 quence how this small creature that hunts on the 

 ground could be so successful in capturing so alert and 

 vigorous a bird as this finch ? 



For a long time before this correspondence appeared 

 I had been trying to find out the secret of the matter, 

 but the weasel has keen senses, and it is hard to see and 

 follow his movements in a copse without alarming him. 

 One day, over a year ago, near Boldre, I was fortunate 

 enough to hear a commotion of the lesser kind at a spot 

 where I could steal upon without alarming the little 



