120 Up in the Morning Early. 



attesting that flies are about. As we pass a little bit 

 of road which has been cut through a sandy rise, we 

 see what is very uncommon in our district, a couple of 

 sand-martins — delicate and slender and silvery-dark — 

 who have contrived to find themselves a nest-hole in 

 the bank thus made, and are now busy feeding a young 

 brood. Nature, wise housekeeper, does not long leave 



any ugliness due to man's adventuresomeness unim- 

 proved or unrelieved by some form of life. 



We are not far enough from the great city not to be 

 aware that the bird-catcher comes this way. We have 

 met him over and over again. He has some of the 

 worst traits of the loafer ; but he is very clever in his 

 own way — he can imitate to a nicety the note of the 

 bird he wants — whether it be linnet or robin, chaffinch 

 or goldfinch, bullfinch or yellowhammer ; and though 

 he finds his " take " too plenteously for our liking, 

 still the shyer birds abound, while the tamer and more 



