8o The Amateur Poacher 



double-barrel ; and a bright sparkle glitters here and 

 there as a dewdrop catches a ray. 



Upon the grass a faint halo appears ; it is a narrow 

 band of light encircling the path, an oval ring per- 

 haps rather horseshoe shape than oval. It glides in 

 front, keeping ever at the same distance as you walk, 

 as if there the eye was focussed. This is only seen 

 when the grass is wet with dew, and better in short 

 grass than long. Where it shines the grass looks a 

 paler green. Passing gently along a hedge thickly 

 timbered with oak and elm, a hawk may perhaps start 

 forth : hawks sometimes linger by the hedges till late, 

 but it is not often that you can shoot one at roost 

 except in spring. Then they invariably return to 

 roost in the nest tree, and are watched there and so 

 shot, a gunner approaching on each side of the hedge. 

 In the lane dark objects rabbits hasten away, and 

 presently the footpath crosses the still motionless 

 brook near where it flows into the mere. 



The low brick parapet of the bridge is overgrown 

 with mosses ; great hedges grow each side, and the 

 willows, long uncut, almost meet in the centre. In 

 one hedge an opening leads to a drinking-place for 

 cattle : peering noiselessly over the parapet between 

 the boughs, the coots and moorhens may be seen there 

 feeding by the shore. They have come up from the 



