BIRDS' NESTS. 199 



ably startled as they suddenly rose from the 

 thick underwood, and flew heavily to another 

 part of the cover. This, however, was now 

 out of the question, since the wood being a 

 small one, it was not likely to contain an- 

 other nest. 



He searched carefully about, in hopes of 

 finding something which might help to convict 

 the offender, but without success. The ground 

 was so thickly covered with long grass, blue- 

 bells, and other woodland flowers, that no foot- 

 prints could be detected, and after a while 

 he gave up the search. On regaining the 

 path, he began to return homewards, when 

 his attention was aroused by a little bit of 

 something white sticking to a bramble. He 

 picked it off, and found it to be the corner of 

 what appeared to be a newspaper ; and on ex- 

 amining the ground more closely, he observed 

 that the plants had been recently pressed down, 

 as if something heavy had been laid on them. 

 The thought immediately occurred to him, that 



