22 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



ing with gusto, amidst other pests, the larvae of the 

 dart-moth^ the daddy-longlegs and the cockchafer, whose 

 ravages, if unchecked, upon the root and wheat crops, 

 are so fearful. 



A very different bird was yesterday under the house, 

 but too far off for a shot, although we had well nigh 

 attempted one, at the instigation of that worst cause of 

 war, a woman's wish, his gi'ey wing being coveted as an 

 ornament for a riding hat. Poised for an hour or more 

 he stood there with wet feet, watching the shallows at 

 the turn of the river. 



There had been a flood a few days before, when the 

 wild Welsh mountains poured their contingent into the 

 impetuous Wye, which sinking as rapidly as it rose left 

 shoals of coarse fish with an occasional salmon stranded 

 in the hollows of the bank. 



This feed had attracted our friend the heron, as it 

 had many other human pirates before, in whose track 

 he found it safest to follow. 



What a rich deposit those alluvial waters leave ! 

 That shining coat of slime, which looks so nasty wet 

 and so scaly dry, yields yet upon that island strip an 

 earlier crop of fodder for cutting than even the winter 

 vetches. It comes again to mow, and is grazed, after 

 mowing, quite down to the quick, when the adjoining 

 pasture is neglected, notwithstanding an abundance of 

 keep that seems sweet and ample, being close grown 

 with trefoil and clover. 



Is the benefit rendered by moles equal to the mis- 

 chief they do ? I see they have been busy on the 

 meadows. I don't quite like to order their destruction ; 

 and yet, when they come boring under the slopes where 

 you cannot roll, one gets, it is to be confessed, sadly 



