APRIL GOSSIP. 201 



The lads, who still pelt the frogs in the ponds, just 

 as they always did, in spite of so much schooling, call 

 them chollies. Pheasants are often called peacocks. 

 Bush-harrows, which are at work in the meadows at this 

 time of year, are drudges or dredges. One sunny morn- 

 ing I noticed the broken handle of a jug on the bank of 

 the road by the garden. What interested me was the 

 fine shining glaze of this common piece of red earthen- 

 ware. And how had the potter made that peculiar 

 marking under the surface of the glaze ? I touched it 

 with my stick, when the pot-handle drew itself out of 

 loop shape and slowly disappeared under some dead 

 furze, showing the blunt tail of a blindworm. I have 

 heard people say that the red ones are venomous, but 

 the grey harmless. The red are spiteful, and if you see 

 them in the road you should always kill them. It is 

 curious that in places where blindworms are often seen 

 their innocuous nature should not be generally known. 

 They are even called adders sometimes. At the farm 

 below, the rooks have been down and destroyed the 

 tender chickens not long hatched ; they do not eat the 

 whole of the chicken, but disembowel it for food. Rooks 

 are very wide feeders, especially at nesting-time. They 

 are suspected of being partial to the young of partridge 

 and pheasant, as well as to the eggs. 



Looking down upon the tree-tops of the forest from 

 a height, there seemed to come from day to day a hoari- 

 ness in the boughs, a greyish hue, distinct from the 

 blackness of winter. This thickened till the eye could 

 not see into the wood ; until then the trunks had been 

 visible, but they were now shut out. The buds were 

 coming ; and presently the surface of the tree-tops took 

 a dark reddish-brown tint. The larches lifted their 

 branches, which had drooped, curving upwards as a man 



