92 



FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



juice and nature of the bird that 'ere way, not the 

 real virtue on it. Now when a pudding o' that sort 

 is in front o' ye, and you cuts it, the gravy spins 

 out all sparkling and goldy-colour like. If you was 

 going by any place where they was eating one and 

 you got a sniff on it, it would make you feel fit to 

 bust the door in, just to get a taste." 



He would doubtless have continued to give min- 

 ute details of the virtues of woodland luxuries, but 

 I ask him to postpone such descriptions, as, not 

 having yet breakfasted, what I have already heard 

 has aroused in me a ferocious appetite. 



At the time black-game were so numerous, the 

 foxes, badgers, polecats, stoats and weasels, hawks, 

 owls, crows, and jays were present in full force, 

 scattered all over the place, and particularly so 

 near the haunts and playing-up places of the birds ; 

 and yet in spite of all these supposed game-exter- 

 minators, the black-game increased. The only bird 

 that now and again killed him was the hen-harrier. 

 I have seen this happen, and therefore I state it. 

 The culprit was not the ringtail, although the hen 

 is the more powerful bird. It was the gull-like 

 plumaged male hen-harrier. I have seen him at 



