BIRDS OF WOODLAND AND HEDGEROW. 155 



the bed of a dried-up beck at the foot of the hill, 

 and, peeping cautiously through a hole in my 

 tent cloth, I beheld an old hare limping daintily 

 towards me. She sat up and listened for a while 

 within a couple of yards of my pile of worm-eaten 

 timber, and then went her way in the same 

 leisurely gait in which she had crossed the brook. 

 Not more than ten minutes elapsed before she 

 was followed by a second, and then a third, all 

 travelling in the same direction to their common 

 feeding-ground. The last, like the first, sat up 

 and listened intently for a few seconds when 

 close to my place of concealment, and by way 

 of experiment I snapped a wee twig at my feet. 

 The slight crack instantly broke the spell ; the 

 hare bounded away up the hillside, and the hawk 

 left her nest in a great hurry. 



As the place was so utterly secluded, I deemed 

 the camera safe enough from molestation for the 

 night, and, unscrewing the lens, put it in my pocket 

 and went away, satisfied that to-morrow had 

 something in it worth striving after. 



Early the following morning I started out for 

 the lonely ghyll, under the depressing influences 

 of an unpromising change in the weather. When 

 I had covered little more than half the distance, 

 a heavy shower of rain drove me beneath the 

 friendly shelter of a holly tree. Whilst waiting 

 anxiously for the skies to clear, I heard a magpie 



