t one man--is very favourable to observation.
When the proper time arrives the searcher knows within a little where
the nest must be, and has but a small space to beat.

The pheasant being so large a bird, its motions are easy to watch; and
the nest is speedily found, because, being in the hedge or under bushes,
there is a definite place in which to look, instead of the broad surface
of the field. Pheasants will get out of the preserves in the breeding
season and wander into the mounds, so that the space the keeper has to
range is then enlarged threefold. Both pheasants and partridges are
frequently killed on their nests; when the eggs are hard the birds
remain to the last moment, and are often knocked over.

Besides poachers, the eggs have to run the chance of being destroyed by
carrion crows, and occasionally by rooks. Rooks, though generally
cleanly feeders, will at times eat almost anything, from a mussel to a
fledgeling bird. Magpies and jays are accused of being equally dangerous
enemies of eggs and young birds, and so too are snakes. Weasels, stoats,
and rats spare neither egg, parents, nor offspring. Some of the dogs
that run wild will devour eggs; and hawks pounce on the brood if they
see an opportunity. Owls are said to do the same. The fitchew, the
badger, and the hedgehog have a similarly evil reputation; but the first
is rare, the second almost exterminated in many districts; the
third--the poor hedgehog--is common, and some keepers have a bitter
dislike to them. Swine are credited, with the same mischief as the worst
of vermin at this particular season; but nowadays swine are not allowed
to run wild in cultivated districts, except in the autumn when the
acorns are falling.

As the nests are on the ground they are peculiarly accessible, and the
eggs, being large, are tempting. Perhaps the mowing machine is as
destructive as anything; and after all these there is the risk of a wet
season and of disease. Let the care exercised be never so great, a
certain amount of mortality must occur.

While the young partridges gradually become strong and swift, the nuts
are increasing in size, and ripening upon the bough. The very hazel has
a pleasant sound--not a nut-tree hedge existed in the neighbourhood that
we did not know and visit. We noted the progress of the bushes from the
earliest spring, and the catkins to the perfect nut.

There are threads of brilliant scarlet upon the hazel in February,
though the gloo