872 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



and then, bless your soul, there's another reason. Rab- 

 bits don't turn up, in a day's walk,^ like they used to ; 

 and for one, I take time by the forelock, as folks say, 

 and snared, without hurtin' 'em, about a dozen, which 

 are in a pen now, waitin' for the law to come in, so I 

 can sell 'em. You needn't say anything about this, but 

 you just keep on settin' traps, and perhaps you'll catch 

 another 'twixt now and Christinas." 



As I went home, it occurred to me that I might as 

 well give my traps to Miles, Somehow, it was evident 

 he would have all the rabbits, and empty traps all winter 

 would become tiresome. 



I am surprised to find my observations ever fail to 

 tally with the conclusions of the learned doctors of the 

 science of birds ; but such is the unpleasant fact. Tiie 

 birds are obstinate enough not to follow the rules laid 

 down for them in the books. To-day, as I walked across 

 the mucky meadow, stepping from hassock to hassock, 

 I startled from the grass a dozen pretty finches, which, 

 at first glance, I took to be swamp sparrows ; but their 

 voices betrayed them ; they were sharp-tailed finclies, or 

 quail-heads. There is no possibility of confounding 

 them with any other bird; and here, fifty miles from 

 salt water, were these sea-coast birds, lively as crickets 

 and happy as larks. Now, it is laid down in the books 

 that this is a strictly marine species, a coast-dweller, and 

 one that abhors the semi-desiccated inland. But so are 

 curlews coast birds, j^et they are killed, every year or 

 two, on these meadows. So too are willets, turnstones, 

 avocets, and sanderlings. All come up the river, and in 



