HOW TO GROW GOOD TIMBER. 283 



sally forth in quest of prey, and hunt all round the hedges of meadows 

 and small enclosures for them, which seem to be their only food. In 

 this irregular country we can stand on an eminence and see them 

 beat the fields over like a setting-dog, and often drop down in the 

 grass or corn. I have minuted these birds with my watch for an 

 hour togethex*, and have found that they return to their nest, the one 

 or the other of them, about once in five minutes ; reflecting at the 

 same time on the adroitness that every animal is possessed of as far 

 as regards the well-being of itself and offspring. 



Notwithstanding the good done by these birds in 

 keeping under mice, all our eloquence could scarcely 

 preserve them from the onslaught of the keeper ; they 

 were, however, protected during our pleasant sojourn 

 at the Holt ; but we much fear only, after all, to 

 gratify the taste for stuffed birds, a love which is 

 equally fatal to the feathered race (and especially the 

 finest examples thereof) as the hate of the keeper. 



But we are digressing sadly, and must return to 

 Quercus Robur pedanculata, and complete our obser- 

 vations thereon with the statement that most, if not 

 all, the nobler examples of oaks in England belong to 

 this form. Selby directs attention to the "Flitton 

 Oak, in Devonshire, of the Sessiliflora variety, sup- 

 posed to be one thousand years old, and which is 

 thirty-three feet in circumference at one foot from 

 the ground." However, nearly every historical oak 

 is of the pedunculate variety. In the Holt forest are 

 still left some huge examples ; the same in the Dean 

 forest ; and Braydon, near Swindon, Wilts, though 

 disafforested, can yet show noble trees of this form. 

 Indeed, throughout England it is difficult to meet 

 with many examples of any other form, except in 

 Wyre forest, "Worcestershire, where the tree next to 

 be described is perhaps the more general, and it 

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