SWALLOWS AND CHURCHES 203 



was a singular-looking boy, about fourteen to fifteen 

 years old ; very thin, with long legs, small head, and sharp 

 round face, and was dressed in earth-coloured, thread- 

 bare clothes much too small for him. With that small 

 sharp face and those shifty eyes under his little grey 

 cap, he looked curiously like some furred creature — 

 rat or vole, with perhaps a dash of stoat in his com- 

 position, and if his nose had been longer I might have 

 added that there was even a touch of the shrew-mouse 

 in his appearance. 



After I had been standing there speaking to him for 

 a little whUe he got over his distrust, and coming out 

 of the shadow of the trees climbed upon the wall, and 

 sitting there became quite talkative, and told me all 

 about his life and the wild creatures he had observed. 

 He was a farm labourer's son, and his birthplace and 

 home was high up on the Mendips, in the ancient 

 desolate village of Priddy, a few mUes from Wells. 

 Since he was big enough to run about he had been 

 employed as a bird-scarer on the farm where his father 

 worked, and he appeared to have been an extremely 

 observant boy. Talking of swifts he said, " They 

 screechers be curious birds : did you ever hear, zur, 

 that they be up flying about all night and come back 

 in the marning ? " 



I asked him if some one had told him that, and he 

 said No, he had found it out himself. Morning after 

 morning he had noticed, just after sunrise, that a 

 number of swifts suddenly made their appearance at 



