78 The Gamekeeper at Home. 



may find its way up through their ' runs.' Toads are 

 also occasionally found on these ricks, and it is not 

 exactly clear how they get there either ; but their 

 object is plain— i.e. the insects which swarm on the 

 hay. 



The thick hedgerows of these woodland meads are 

 full of trees, and others stand out in groups in the grass, 

 some of them hollow. Elms often become hollow, 

 and so do oaks ; the latter have such large cavities 

 sometimes that one or more persons may easily crouch 

 therein. This is speaking of an ordinary-sized tree ; 

 there are many instances of patriarchs of the forest 

 within whose capacious trunks a dozen might stand 

 upright. 



These hollow trees, according to woodcraft, ought 

 to come down by the axe without further loss of time. 

 Yet it is fortunate that we are not all of us, even in 

 this prosaic age, imbued with the stern utilitarian 

 spirit ; for a decaying tree is perhaps more interest- 

 ing than one in full vigour of growth. The starlings 

 make their nests in the upper knot-holes ; or, lower 

 down, the owl feeds her young ; and if you chance to 

 pass near, and are not aware of the ways of owls, you 

 may fancy that a legion of serpents are in the bushes, 

 so loud and threatening is the hissing noise made by 

 the brood. The woodpecker comes for the insects 



