BIRDS IN A VILLAGE 99 



One can only say that it was, or was like, intui- 

 tion, which is as much as to say that we don't 

 know. 



IX 



AMONG the rarer fringilline birds on the common 

 were the cirl bunting, bullfinch, and goldfinch, the 

 last two rarely seen* Linnets however were abundant, 

 now gathered in small flocks composed mainly of 

 young birds in plain plumage, with here and there 

 an individual showing the carmine-tinted breast 

 of the adult male. Unhappily 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 some- 

 thing dark on the grass a pair of clap-nets ! " Still 

 another serpent in my birds' paradise I " 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, with pale blue eyes 

 and yellowish hair, close cropped, and the un- 

 mistakable London mark in his chalky complexion. 

 He regarded me with cold suspicious looks, and, 



