264



Mr. Reginald Phillipps,



hawk’s nest in the Nether Wood and the old birds are taking his

chickens.”


A stranger listening to the conversation that followed, in

which my brother and his quondam chum took a leading part, would

have assumed that the latter was an old and experienced falconer

who knew all about falcons and falconry that there was to be known

—and a good deal more besides. As a matter of fact, he had never

possessed a hawk in his life—I doubt if he had ever kept so much

as a canary. It was I who had the birds (hawks, jays, magpies,

&c.) and had inspired the hawking mania in his breast ; and, chanc¬

ing to come upon a book on falconry, he had so worked himself up

into a fever that he was instant on the subject —sometimes in season

but more often very much out of it; the attack while it lasted was

acute, but happily for others it was short-lived.


While the chums chattered, I sat still without saying a word ;

indeed, the two grown-ups were far too superior to recognise my

existence. A much sat-upon younger son, I had become reserved

and silent: and I listened to their vapourings with contempt—I fear

I seldom was so pleased as when I saw them floundering helplessly

in some Natural History quagmire. I had kept birds and beasts

ever since I could toddle, and, at the time we are writing about,

flattered myself that I was acquainted with every nest of importance

anywhere in the neighbourhood ; nevertheless I was now brought

face to face with the ugly fact that there was a hawk’s nest in the

Nether Wood, little more than half-a-mile away, and I knew not of

it whilst others did. I felt that such a circumstance was a serious

reflection on my character, — though why this should have been is

not quite clear.


The Nether Wood occupied the whole of one side of a rather

deep valley, running along the hillside for a mile or so, but was

comparatively narrow. It was mostly an oak wood, which had

been thinned out a few years previously, with a luxuriant under¬

growth of hazel hushes. x\t one end, however, in the top right

corner, the oaks gave way to some thick tall trees of the beech

species; and, just outside, there was a little hamlet ; never having

found a nest of interest near the hamlet, I had not searched this

part of the wood, and therefore concluded that the nest spoken of



