IX 



AMONG the rarer fringilline birds on the com- 

 mon were the cirl bunting, bullfinch and gold- 

 finch, the last two rarely seen. Linnets, however, 

 were abundant, now gathered in small flocks com- 

 posed mainly of young birds in plain plumage, 

 with here and there an individual showing the 

 carmine-tinted breast of the adult male. Unhap- 

 pily, a dreary fate was in store for many of these 

 blithe twitterers. 



On June 24, when walking towards the pool, I 

 spied two recumbent- human figures on a stretch 

 of level turf near its banks, and near them a 

 something dark on the grass a pair of clap-nets ! 

 "Still another serpent in my birds' paradise!" said 

 I to myself, and, walking on, I skirted the nets 

 and sat down on the grass beside the men. One 

 was a rough brown-faced country lad; the other, 

 who held the strings and wore the usual cap and 

 comforter, was a man of about five-and-twenty, 



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