rway--feather-eaved--at
the side. It was a great temptation, and hard to resist was the sight
of that nest; it was only about five feet from the ground, and they
could have cut off the branch and brought it away with the nest
uninjured; but they contented themselves with marking the spot by
cutting an arrow in the bark of one of the beech-trees, and promising
themselves that they would have the nest when the birds had done with
it. All at once a bird fluttered from a bush close by--a bird with a
large head and marked in the wings with a good deal of white, and off
went the boys in chase; but almost at the first start, Philip stumbled
by catching his foot in a long bramble runner, and went down sprawling
amongst the heather, with Harry upon his back, for he could not pull up
time enough to prevent stumbling over his brother. Away went Fred, all
alone, and very soon he captured the strange bird, for its wing had been
broken; but the muscles of the great beak it had were in a good state of
preservation, as Fred soon knew to his cost, by the nip the prisoned
bird gave him.

Fred shouted out with the pain, but he had grown more stoical since his
sojourn in the country, and he held on tightly to his prize, which Harry
declared, when he saw it, was a chaffinch with a swelled head; but
afterwards, when they brought it to Mr Inglis, he told the boys it was
a fine male specimen of the hawfinch, or grosbeak, rather a rare bird in
the British Isles. A temporary cage was made for the prisoner by tying
him up in a pocket-handkerchief, and then the party continued their
ramble, finding fresh objects to take their attention at every step.
Once a weasel ran out into the path, sat up a moment to look at the
strangers, and then disappeared on the other side.

Fred was for giving chase, but his cousins gave him to understand how
fruitless such a task would be; so he gave up his intention, and onward
they still went, with fresh beauties springing up before them every
minute. If they had been botanically disposed, they might have filled
their boxes with mosses and lichens, from the tiniest green to the
bright orange golden that clung round the branches and sprays of the
bushes. Some of the beeches were almost covered with grey or creamy
patches, of the most beautiful patterns and tints; while wherever a
rotten bough, or fallen tree, lay upon the ground, the moss seemed to
have taken full possession, and completely covered it with a ve