152 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



o' folks : I gin him one on the snout fur jeerin' o' 

 me t'other night. I told him I knowed a rare 

 strong spar -hawk's nest : it waunt on his beat, 

 but 'twas precious close to it, an' most likely they'd 

 harry his ground a bit when they flighted. He said 

 then as how he'd give me a brace o' drummers 

 [rabbits] if I'd git that nest an' bring it to him. 



But I told him as how I'd see him d d first, an' 



his rabbits too. When I wanted drummers I could 

 git them for myself. When he jeered me t'other 

 night about not lettin' him see me rabbitin', he got 

 snouted. This 'ere nest is in the trees on common 

 land, so 'tis all right." Tommy knew well that I 

 was not given to trespassing. 



Hawks, as a general rule, range wide from their 

 nests for their quarry. I believe it is the usual form 

 now to call the nests of all the Raptores by a different 

 name ; but nests they have been to me from my 

 childhood, and they will remain at that, from the 

 nest of the cowardly eagle — and he is cowardly in 

 spite of his great reputation — to that of the gallant 

 and spirited midget, the little merlin, the stone- 

 falcon of the moors. 



Two long miles from their resting-place in the old 



