SKINS AND FEATHERS. 



THE OLD MOLE-CATCHER. 



too, are sometimes saved for the same purpose ; in many 

 woods they seem now quite extinct The otter skin is 

 valuable, but does not often come under the care of the 

 keeper's wife. The keeper now and then shoots a grebe 

 in the mere where the streamlet widens out into a small 

 lake, which again is bordered by water-meadows. This 

 bird is uncommon, but not altogether rare ; sometimes two 

 or three are killed in the year in this southern inland 

 haunt. He also shoots her some jays, whose wings as 



