98 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [iI.

 

these I found to be the time which ought to be the
happiest time for all created beings: I mean Christ-
mas-tide. It would be happy enough for birds and
beasts, in spite of occasional frost and snow, but for
the doings of the monster Man. On ‘Boxing Day,’
as they call it, and indeed on sundry other days, as far
as I could ever make out, half the men and boys run
about with guns in their hands, which they use in the
most reckless manner. I do not think that they pur-
sue any particular kind of game, but, as the saying is,
‘all is fish that comes to their net.’ I do not suppose
that a pheasant or a partridge would be spared by
these gunners if they came upon such birds in their
wanderings, but they are satisfied with birds of much
less importance. Sparrows, robins, tomtits, and all
such small fry they pursue with as much eagerness as
if their lives depended upon the success of their enter-
prise. A lark mounting slowly in the air with his joy-
ful song, affords a fair mark for their aim, though to kill
anything when flying is rather beyond their skill.
But a blackbird in a hawthorn hedge is a grand prize
for them, and I have seen the would-be sports-
men follow such a bird from hedge to hedge with
a perseverance and enthusiasm worthy of a better
cause. These people are a great nuisance to an
honest rook who has his living to get, and plenty to
do to find food for himself when the ground is covered
with frost and snow.

I remember on one occasion J had flown down with
some mates of mine into a sheep-fold, where the ani-
mals had trodden away the snow to a considerable
extent, and we thought we had a good chance of