22 FISHING FOR PLEASURE 



of sap had oozed out into a deep cleft of the 

 rough bark, had congealed there, and the hornet 

 had discovered it. Before he had been long 

 feeding on it I saw a little bank-vole come out 

 from the roots of the tree and run up the trunk, 

 looking very bright and pretty in his bright 

 chesnut fur as he came into the sunlight, steal- 

 ing up to the lower end of the cleft full of 

 thickened sap. He, too, began feeding on it. 

 The hornet, who was at the upper end of the 

 cleft, quite four inches apart from the vole, at 

 once stopped eating, and regarded the intruder 

 for some time, then advanced towards him in a 

 threatening attitude. The vole was frightened 

 at this, starting and erecting his hair, and once 

 or twice he tried to recover his courage and re- 

 sume his feeding, but the hornet still keeping 

 up his hostile movements, he eventually slid 

 quietly down and hid himself at the roots. 

 When the hornet departed he came out again 

 and went to the sap. . . . Rarely have I looked 

 on a prettier little comedy in wild life." 



Our author confirms the old story of the 

 young cuckoo hatched in a robin's nest ejecting 

 the eggs, and he actually saw and describes the 

 method adopted by this two or three days old 

 " jelly-like creature " to get the young robin on 

 to the hollow of his own naked back, and so to 

 gradually work it up to the edge of the nest, 

 and, " standing actually on the rim, jerked his 

 body, causing the robin to fall off clean away 

 from the nest. It fell in fact on a dock-leaf five 

 inches below the rim of the nest and rested 



