BRITISH GAME-BIRDS. 223 



found in some fields that were at the foot of one of 

 the Surrey hills, close to a railway station, where 

 the little fellow's call of " Bit by bit," or as others 

 had it, "Wet, my weet wet, my weet," was fre- 

 quently heard. I knew they were quails, for I had 

 a fine cock from there ; his call had been the cause 

 of his death. One bird out of several might be 

 spared, I thought, for natural history purposes, so 

 I had him. 



At that time I painted my birds in the surround- 

 ings in which I found them. When I got a bird, a 

 considerable armful of tangle went home with him 

 from the spot where I found it. If I were to gather 

 together all my earlier work, given as soon as it was 

 done to my young companions who roamed the 

 fields with me, I often think I should be astonished 

 at the quantity of it. Full of artistic faults no doubt 

 the drawings would be ; indeed they received plenty 

 of criticism from our elders. I never asked them to 

 look at my humble efforts, but they gave it all the 

 same. Bitterness of heart it caused me as a boy 

 of thirteen. I felt I had done no wrong, and yet I 

 was made to feel in some way small and foolish. 

 "This was too much worked up," "that was too 



