114 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



the gang of black robbers that once haunted the 

 place. I have counted dozens gathering and calling 

 each other on a winter afternoon, just before the 

 roost hour. In those days I could get as many 

 crows' eggs as I chose, for the birds would line 

 their nests in April, before the leaf was green. 

 These nests, bulky, and set high, were soon found. 

 I have climbed to three or four in a day. All I 

 needed was a short ladder, by which to reach the 

 lowest branch of the crow's oak. After this, it was 

 a safe adventure from branch to branch to the fork 

 where the great mass of sticks and wool was tightly 

 packed and fixed. The inside of the nest was thick 

 and warm, and nicely rounded. The carrion crow 

 is no sloven builder, and in this favourite haunt I 

 never knew the bird patch up an old nest. 



Now and then the gang might lose one of its 

 members through shot or snare ; but not till a 

 young and keen man came on the scene was war 

 really waged against them. This man, truly an 

 intimate of the dawn, would be up and out on his 

 rounds by five in the morning. I met him lately 

 in one of the rides at eleven on a wet autumn 

 morning ; he had then been out for a good six 

 hours, and was beginning to think with a relish 

 of his midday meal. He policed the wood. He 

 did not trouble to rifle the crows' nests or lie am- 

 bushed with his gun. His cure for crows was 

 quick and terrible something from a phial. Then 



