1 88 The Amateur Poacher 



where a slow stream winds in and out, unmarked by 

 willow or bush, but fringed with green aquatic grasses 

 growing on a margin of ooze, the snipe finds tempting 

 food ; or in the meadows where a little spring breaks 

 forth in the ditch and does not freeze— for water which 

 has just bubbled out of the earth possesses this pecu- 

 liarity, and is therefore favourable to low forms of 

 insect or slug life in winter — the snipe may be found 

 when the ponds are bound with ice. 



Some of the old country folk used to make as 

 much mystery about this bird as the cuckoo. Because 

 it was seldom seen till the first fogs the belief was 

 that it had lost its way in the mist at sea, and come 

 inland by mistake. 



Just as in the early part of the year green buds 

 and opening flowers welcome swallow and cuckoo, so 

 the colours of the dying leaf prepare the way for the 

 second feathered immigration in autumn. Once now 

 and then the tints of autumn are so beautiful that the 

 artist can hardly convey what he sees to canvas. The 

 maples are aglow with orange, the oaks one mass of 

 buff, the limes light gold, the elms a soft yellow. In 

 the hawthorn thickets bronze spots abound ; here and 

 there a bramble leaf has turned a brilliant crimson 

 (though many bramble leaves will remain a dull green 

 all the winter through) ; the edible chestnut sheds 



