foxes, early in the morning. A badger was found dead in the wood the first
year I rented it. This I much regretted, for though it had probably been
shot coming out of a cornfield next the wood, the badger is quite
harmless, and most useful to the fox hunter, for he _cleans out the
earths_. Mr. E. Dunn, late master of the Old Berkshire, tells me that
they are of great service in this way, as they _dig_ and enlarge the
earths, and so prevent the taint of mange clinging to the sides if a mangy
fox has lain in them.

[Illustration: DABCHICK. _From a photograph by R.B. Lodge._]

[Illustration: BADGER. _From a photograph by J.S. Bond._]

Lying between the river and the hills, this wood holds nearly every
species of the larger woodland and riverine birds common to southern
England. The hobby breeds there yearly. The wild pheasant, crow,
sparrow-hawk, kestrel, magpie, jay, ringdove, brown owl, water-hen (on the
river-bounded side), in summer the cuckoo and turtle-dove, are all found
there, and, with the exception of the pigeons and kestrels, which seek
their food at a distance during the day, they seldom leave the shelter of
its trees. One other species frequents the more open parts of the cover in
yearly greater numbers; this is the common grey partridge. The wood has an
increasing attraction for them. They nest in it, fly to it at once for
shelter when disturbed, lie in the thick copses during the heat of the
day, and roost there at night. Several covies may be seen on the wing in a
few minutes if the stubbles outside are disturbed in the evening, flying
to the wood. There they alight, and run like pheasants, refusing to rise
if followed. It is said that in the most thickly planted parts of
Hampshire the partridge is becoming a woodland bird, like the ruffed
grouse of North America. All that it needs to learn is how to perch in a