THE CROWS 



some considerable distance and wait about for hours 

 without seeing a weasel ; but here by the side of a 

 busy suburban road there were plenty. Professional 

 rat-catchers ferreted the bank once or twice, and 

 rilled their iron cages. With these the dogs kept 

 by dog-fanciers in the adjacent suburb were prac- 

 tised in destroying vermin at so much a rat. 

 Though ferreted and hunted down by the weasels, 

 the rats were not rooted out, but remained till the 

 ash-heap was sifted and no fresh refuse deposited. 



In one place among the gorse, the willows, 

 birches, and thorn bushes make a thick covert, 

 which is adjacent to several of the hidden pools 

 previously mentioned. Here a brook-sparrow or 

 sedge-reedling takes up his quarters in the spring, 

 and chatters on, day and night, through the sum- 

 mer. Visitors to the opera and playgoers returning 

 in the first hours of the morning from Covent- 

 garden or Drury-lane can scarcely fail to hear 

 him if they pause but one moment to listen to the 

 nightingale. 



The latter sings in one bush and the sedge- 

 reedling in another close together. The moment 

 the nightingale ceases the sedge-reedling lifts his 

 voice, which is a very penetrating one, and in the 

 silence of the night may be heard some distance. 

 This bird is credited with imitating the notes 

 of several others, and has been called the English 



