APRIL GOSSIP. 201 
The lads, who still pelt the frogs in the ponds, just 
as they always did, in spite of so much schooling, call 
them chollies. Pheasants are often called peacocks. 
Bush-harrows, which are at work in the meadows at this 
time of year, are drudges or dredges. One sunny morn- 
ing I noticed the broken handle of a jug on the bank of 
the road by the garden. What interested me was the 
fine shining glaze of this common piece of red earthen- 
ware. And how had the potter made that peculiar 
marking under the surface of the glaze? I touched it 
with my stick, when the pot-handle drew itself out of 
loop shape and slowly disappeared under some dead 
furze, showing the blunt tail of a blindworm. I have 
heard people say that the red ones are venomous, but 
the grey harmless. The red are spiteful, and if you see 
them in the road you should always kill them. It is 
curious that in places where blindworms are often seen 
their innocuous nature should not be generally known. 
They are even called adders sometimes. At the farm 
below, the rooks have been down and destroyed the 
tender chickens not long hatched; they do not eat the 
whole of the chicken, but disembowel it for food. Rooks 
are very wide feeders, especially at nesting-time. They 
are suspected of being partial to the young of partridge 
and pheasant, as well as to the eggs. 
Looking down upon the tree-tops of the forest from 
a height, there seemed to come from day to day a hoari- 
ness in the boughs, a greyish hue, distinct from the 
blackness of winter. This thickened till the eye could 
not see into the wood ; until then the trunks had been 
visible, but they were now shut out. The buds were 
coming ; and presently the surface of the tree-tops took 
a dark reddish-brown tint. The larches lifted their 
branches, which had drooped, curving upwards as a man 
