MISADVENTURES OF BIBD-WATCHING 61 



tried to stick up for yer, and gave leuan my mind 

 on it. 6 Why/ says I, ' you're all wrong ; least- 

 ways I b'lieve so. He wouldn't go a-ferrutin' 

 rabbits this time o' year. Most likely Mister's 

 got a worm, or a Jinny flewog (caterpillar) that 

 he's a-studyin' of ; that's what he's doin' under 

 the wood.' But leuan says as no man would go 

 after a worm or a Jinny flewog all that way, or 

 he'd better go a bit further, to th' 'sylum, quick ; 

 and then leuan talks about tellin' th' landlord, 

 and all that. But I says if he'd as much as 

 breathe about you poachin', he'd put his foot in it 

 and no mistake." 



Then the truth dawned on me, and I recog- 

 nised at once that it was leuan who had been 

 watching from the hedge, and that it was leuan 

 who had endeavoured, in his own cunning way, 

 to stop my depredations among his rabbits by 

 turning loose the old bull, whose antipathy for 

 all and sundry had won him abundant respect 

 throughout the countryside. 



In this case I failed to identify the warblers, 

 though I watched them evening after evening, 

 spending in all probability thirty hours near 

 their haunts. The reader may wonder at this 

 assertion, and may express an opinion to the 

 effect that it would be easy to obtain a satis- 

 factory clue from some first-class book on 

 natural history. But I am nevertheless certain 



