126 The Amateur Poacher 



two down-strokes much prolonged. In the morning 

 the chalky rubble brought from the pits upon the 

 Downs and used for mending gateways leading into 

 the fields glistens brightly. Upon the surface of each 

 piece of rubble there adheres a thin coating of ice : 

 if this be lightly struck it falls off, and with it a flake 

 of the chalk. As it melts, too, the chalk splits and 

 crumbles ; and thus in an ordinary gateway the 

 same process may be seen that disintegrates the most 

 majestic cliff. 



The stubbles — those that still remain — are full of 

 linnets, upon which the mouching fowler preys in the 

 late autumn. And when at the end of January the 

 occasional sunbeams give some faint hope of spring, 

 he wanders through the lanes carrying a decoy bird 

 in a darkened cage, and a few boughs of privet studded 

 with black berries and bound round with rushes for 

 the convenience of handling. 



The female yellow-hammers, whose hues are not so 

 brilliant as those of the male birds, seem as winter 

 approaches to flock together, and roam the hedges 

 and stubble fields in bevies. Where loads of corn 

 have passed through gates the bushes often catch 

 some straws, and the tops of the gateposts, being 

 decayed and ragged, hold others. These are neglected 

 while the seeds among the stubble, the charlock, and 



