62 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



crawled through them, and got torn clothes, 

 scratched hands and faces, and then made fresh 

 acquaintance with the aforementioned ash-suckers 

 when they arrived at home again. 



When crops were off, the fields and hedgerows 

 came in for our inspection. I was the only one of 

 the lot who owned a natural history book, and that 

 being of the old popular sort, was quickly put on one 

 side : I found that the accounts there given did not 

 tally very well with what I saw for myself. This at 

 the time was a great puzzle to me. 



When we found the young of the corncrake dark 

 sooty little creatures, just escaped from their shells, 

 I wondered why birds, which in their habits were 

 so much like partridges, should be so very different 

 in their colouring when they were young ! Why 

 should the great shrike come when the other shrikes 

 were not to be seen ? These and other matters 

 exercised me much ; and indeed they do still at 

 times. On one of those old hedges I refer to, I 

 have seen the great grey shrike looking like a small 

 magpie. Even now in the season, although the 

 hedge has been grubbed for these fifteen years 

 past, the great shrike pays a fleeting visit to 



