82 THE GAMEKEEPER AT HOME. 



the upper knot-holes ; or, lower down, the owl feeds her 

 young ; and if you chance to pass near, and are not aware 

 of the ways of owls, you may fancy that a legion of 

 serpents are in the bushes, so loud and threatening is the 

 hissing noise made by the brood. The woodpecker 

 comes for the insects that flourish on the dying giant ; so 

 does the curious little tree-climber, running up the trunk 

 like a mouse ; and in winter, when insect-life is scarce, it 

 is amusing to watch there the busy tomtit. He hangs 

 underneath a dead branch, head downwards, as if walking 

 on a ceiling, and with his tiny but strong bill chips off a 

 fragment of the loose dead bark. Under this bark, as he 

 well knows, woodlice and all kinds of creeping things 

 make their home. With the fragment he flies to an 

 adjacent twig, small enough to be grasped by his claws 

 and so give him a firm foothold. There he pecks his 

 morsel into minute pieces and lunches on the living con- 

 tents. Then, with a saucy chuckle of delight in his own 

 cleverness, he returns to the larger bough for a fresh 

 supply. As the bough decays the bark loosens, and is 

 invaded by insects which when it was green could not 

 touch it. 



For the acorns the old oak still yields come rooks, 

 pigeons, and stately pheasants, with their glossy feathers 

 shining in the autumn sun. Thrushes carry wild hedge- 

 fruit up on the broad platform formed by the trunk where 

 the great limbs divide, and pecking it to pieces, leave the 



