284 ON SURREY HILLS. 



footed fowl ; but when the greater part of the catch 

 has consisted, in such weather as we are now writing 

 about, of owls, much has been said by their unwilling 

 captors to little purpose, in language not suited to 

 ears polite. " What can us do with the cussed out- 

 landish things, dead as door-nails too ? We can't 

 eat 'em biled nor yet frizzled, chuck 'em in ter tide 

 fur crabs an' dogs (dogfish)." I have had a part in 

 this business, and can speak feelingly in respect to it. 

 When a man has the devil in both pockets, to speak 

 in our homely phrase, and finds his stomach trying 

 to scrape acquaintance with his backbone, it is ex- 

 asperating to find three or four owls in a net instead 

 of ducks, and gives one " the megrums." 



The white owl visits the tide — I have watched him 

 there myself, but have never seen him in the nets, as 

 I have woodcock, owls, and brown owls. These cer- 

 tainly entered the net on the seaward side. Forty, 

 nay, a hundred miles are as nothing to a bird, especi- 

 ally a bird of prey. 



The birds and animals of the woodland regions are 

 mute under certain conditions of the weather. Bright 

 hard frost, and a clear bracing air, make them feel 

 all alive. They may have to hunt most perseveringly 



