66 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



with water ; the outer skin gets soft, and the inner 

 skin of the acorn readily slips. Here again the 

 ducks have fine food, to which they are very partial. 

 Acorns that have matured in the way I have men- 

 tioned have a very different flavour from those that 

 have just dropped. I have sampled all woodland 

 fruits and berries which are not actually poisonous, 

 and have found out that acorns, like crab -apples, 

 are best when ripened off underneath the leaves. 



First the homes of wild creatures go, then their 

 food, and then there is nothing for them but to 

 clear out also. So far as some of our small birds 

 are concerned (I mean those home-bred birds that 

 should be seen all the year round), there is a close 

 time, we know: this the bird-catcher can answer 

 for. But increased facilities for railway travelling 

 now, in all directions, land these gentry in the very 

 heart of districts that a few years ago were as un- 

 known to them as the heart of Africa. Forty or 

 sixty miles from London is nothing to them now, 

 if their catches are good. Permission is readily 

 given by some, for the sake of thinning the small 

 birds off; others resolutely refuse it, because they 

 will not have birds destroyed wantonly. Some men 



