68 
BIBDS IN A VILLAGE. 
of level turf near its banks, and close to tliem 
something dark on the grass — a pair of bird-nets ! 
" Still another serpent in my bird's paradise ! " said 
I to myself, and, walking on, I skirted the nets and 
sat down on the grass beside the men. One was 
a rough brown-faced country lad ; the other, who 
held the strings and wore cap and comforter, was 
a man of about five and twenty, with pale blue 
eyes and light hair, close cropped, and the unmis- 
takable London mark in his chalky complexion. 
He regarded me with cold suspicious looks, and, 
when I talked and questioned, answered briefly 
and somewhat surlily. I treated him to tobacco, 
and he smoked; but it wasn't shag, and didn't 
soften him. But when I casually mentioned that 
I had seen a stoat an hour before, he exhibited 
a sudden keen interest. It was as if one had said 
" rats ! " to a terrier. I found out who took the 
birds he caught from him, and when I told him 
that I knew the man well — a bird-seller in a low 
part of London — he thawed visibly. Finally I 
asked him to look at a red-backed shrike, perched 
on a bush about fifteen yards from his nets, through 
my field glasses, and from that moment he became 
as friendty as possible, and conversed freely about 
his mystery. " How near it brings him ! " he 
exclaimed, with a grin of delight, after looking at 
the bird. The shrike had greatly annoyed him ; 
