1 62 WITH THE WOODLANDERS. 



nonsense to talk like that, for the frog-mouthed eels 

 was all the perks as I was 'lowed to hev, an' I 

 couldn't afford to throw 'em inter folk's winders, 

 i "Her room was mucked all over, an' she did give 

 tongue. But she ain't watched me since then ; 

 perhaps she's feared another big eel might crawl 

 up her jessymine an' in at her winder agin." 



I thought that I knew nearly all there was to 

 be known about the fern-owl, rightly so named; 

 for the waxen-looking cool green brake and the 

 bird are almost inseparably connected. But here 

 again I have had my spirit humbled, for recent 

 visits to a fern-owl and her young ones, during 

 the last nine days, have proved that one can learn 

 something fresh from the same creature every time 

 one is fortunate enough to be able to make a 

 lengthened observation of it. In the early part of 

 June of the present year, I was slowly walking over 

 a portion of one of our beautiful commons, and as 

 I crossed the main road that ran through it to get 

 on the sward again, a sheep-track through the fern 

 caught my eye; this I followed for a few yards, 

 close to the side of the road. A dead thorn-branch 



