242 BIRD LIFE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR 



kicks, while the assassin, a stoat, slips like a guilty 

 shadow into the thicket. The victim has a single bite 

 behind the ear. Amongst the hedge-row timber there 

 is here and there a decayed stump at which the wood- 

 peckers have been at work. A Pied Woodpecker, 

 crimson-capped, dips from tree to tree and, alights 

 upon one of these . Ascending by a series of active j erks 

 or upward leaps, he stops to peck with fierce energy 

 at a loose piece of bark to dislodge the hidden 

 grub. A knock upon the next hollow trunk, and a 

 Brown Owl emerges from a hole above our heads and 

 sits with head inclined, wisely observant, upon its 

 cushion of moss and polypody. Nuthatches, creepers 

 and tits are busy turning hibernating spiders out 

 of crevices in the bark. As the nuthatch calls 

 "hwit, hwit, tweet, tweet," it moves its head from 

 side to side with a rapid, twitching movement. 

 Amongst the old timber the Stock Dove is often to 

 be seen, its note a hoarser " coo " than that of 

 the wood-pigeon, and its flight lighter and more 

 nimble. 



Now the wood is entered, and here half-a-dozen 

 squirrels are at work, digging for acorns amongst the 

 fallen leaves. Long-tailed pheasants crash heavily 

 up or go footing it away along the dry ditches. Their 

 guardian of the velveteen and gaiters tells us that in 

 outlying covers he still has a few of the old English 

 race, with neck unmarked by the white ring, an inno- 



