Stray Notes. 329 
but if the cat is found and let out she will often 
recover—running about on three legs till the injured 
fore-foot drops off at the joint, when the stump heals 
up. Foxes are sometimes seen running on three legs 
and a stump, having met with a similar disaster. Cats 
contrive to climb some way up the perpendicular sides 
of wheat ricks after the mice. 
The sparrows are the best of gleaners: they leave 
very little grain in the stubble. The women who go 
gleaning now make up their bundles ina clumsy way. 
Now, the old gleaners used to tie up their bundles in 
a clever manner, doubling the straw. in so that it 
bound itself and enabled them to carry a larger 
quantity. Even in so trifling a matter there are two 
ways of doing it, but the ancient traditionary work- 
manship is dying out. The sheaves of corn, when set 
up in the field leaning against each other, bear a 
certain likeness to hands folded in prayer. By the 
side of corn-fields the wild parsnip sometimes grows 
in great profusion. If dug up for curiosity the root 
has a strong odour, like the cultivated vegetable, but 
is small and woody. Everyone who has gathered 
the beautiful scarlet poppies must have noticed the 
perfect Maltese cross formed inside the broad petals 
by the black markings. 
Beetles fly in the evening with such carelessness 
as to strike against people—they come against the 
face with quite a smart blow. Miserable beetles may 
sometimes be seen eaten almost hollow within by in- 
