roadside. I was shooting in Surrey when I once had an excellent view
of an ermine--the stoat in its winter dress. I did not recognize it
until it was out of sight, but I should not have shot it in any case,
for the ermine is a very rare occurrence in the south of England. I
believe that further north it is not unusual, as is natural where the
light colour would protect it from observation in snow, but as far
south as Surrey this would be a danger, and I should scarcely have
noticed it in the thick undergrowth had it been normal in colour.

We had a squirrel's nest, or "drey," as it is called, near my house
last year, and the squirrels have been about my lawn and the Forest
trees ever since. It was charming, in the summer, to watch them
nibbling the fleshy galls produced on the young oaks by a gall-fly
_(Cynips)_. They chattered to each other all the time, holding the
galls between their fore feet, fragments dropping to the ground
beneath the trees. Squirrels are fond of animal food, and I wondered,
as there was so much apparent waste, whether they were not really
searching for the grubs in the galls. Of late years squirrels have
been scarce here; they were formerly abundant, but their numbers were
much reduced by an epidemic. They seem to be increasing again,
possibly the felling of so many Scots-firs has driven them from their
former haunts into adjoining oak and beech woods, such as those which
almost surround my land.

During lunch in a meadow by the roadside, on a cycling ride, we found
a snake with a toad almost down its throat; the snake disgorged the
toad and escaped, but before we had finished lunch it returned and
repeated the process. This time I carried the toad, none the worse for
the adventure, some distance away, where I hope it was safe. Hedgehogs
are said to eat toads, frogs, beetles, and snakes, as well as the eggs