76 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



begin to feed; and the rooks have now returned 

 with food for their families of "branchers," that 

 will not be shot this year. If noise is with them 

 an expression of pleasure, they are certainly re- 

 joicing over their early meal. The heave-jars left 

 their chafer - hunting just when we first entered 

 the meadows to fish ; they are now resting some- 

 where on the limbs or branches of the fine oaks 

 around us — not as other birds rest, but lengthways, 

 in a line with the limb or branch the birds squat 

 on, so as to be invisible from below and quite 

 secure from harm above it. The last late owl 

 has gone home to the farm at the foot of the hill. 

 I call him late, for the sun is high up now, and 

 it will be very hot before long. Where these grand 

 vermin-hunters are protected, they show great con- 

 fidence, coming out to hunt directly the sun is 

 down a little, and continuing to do so until the 

 farm hands take their horses out to work in the 

 morning. The mouse-hunters, the white or barns 

 owls, come out earlier and hunt later than do the 

 wood or brown owls. These fine birds are, happily, 

 now valued here as much as they were at one 

 time detested. The grim superstitions that have 



