rhinoceros-birds, by which he was attended, warned him of his impending danger by sticking their bills into his ear, and uttering their harsh grating cry. Thus aroused, he suddenly sprang to his feet, and crashed away through the jungle at a rapid trot, and I saw no more of him.” Then he adds, "Many a time have these ever-watchful birds disappointed me in my stalk, and tempted me to invoke an anathema upon their heads. They are the best friends the rhinoceros has, and rarely fail to awaken him even in his soundest nap. Chukuroo perfectly understands their warning, and springing to his feet, he generally first looks about him in every direction, after which he invariably makes off. I have often hunted a rhinoceros on horseback, which led me a chase of many miles, and required a number of shots before he fell, during which chase several of these birds remained by the rhinoceros to the last. They reminded me of mariners on the deck of some bark sailing on the ocean, for they perched along his back and sides, and as each of my bullets told on the shoulder of the rhinoceros, they ascended about six feet into the air, uttering their harsh cry of alarm, and then resumed their position. It sometimes happened that the lower branches of trees under which the rhinoceros passed swept them from their living deck, but they always recovered their former station. They also adhere to the rhinoceros during the night. I have often shot these animals at midnight when drinking at the fountains; and the birds, imagining they were asleep, remained with them till morning, and on my approaching, before taking flight, they exerted themselves to their utmost to awaken chukuroo from his deep sleep." The object of the bird, however, in cleaving to the beast is self-interest: fixed on the backs of the larger ruminants by his cramp-irons of claws, the beef-eater, as he has been called by the English, and pique-boeuf by the French, digs and squeezes out with his forceps of a beak the larvae that are generated under the tough hide of the quadruped. The celebrated ornithologist Le Vaillant gives the following description of the ox-pecker, by which name Swainson designates the Buphaga Africana-"The bill of the pique-boeuf," he says, "is fashioned as a pair of solid pincers, to facilitate the raising up out of the hides of quadrupeds the larvae of the gad-flies, which are there deposited and nourished: the species, therefore, anxiously seeks out the herds of oxen, of buffaloes, of antelopes, of all the quadrupeds, in short, upon which these gadflies deposit their eggs. The animals, accustomed to the treatment, bear with the birds complacently, and apparently perceive the service which they render to them in freeing them from these true parasites, which live at the expense of their proper substance." Besides the larvæ of the gad fly, these birds eat the ticks when they are full of blood, and all sorts of insects generally. It seems rather a flagrant omission on the part of both Le Vaillant and Mr. Gordon Cumming, that the former never mentions the rhinoceros as being the particular beast to which this bird attaches itself; while the latter omits to mention other quadrupeds, and represents the bird as rendering the double services of scratch-back and sentinel to the rhinoceros alone. We are inclined to believe that the bird is particularly what our author calls it, a rhinoceros-bird; because the animal, from his inert and sluggish habits, and deeply furrowed hide, would not only supply the bird with more food than thinner-skinned animals, but would submit to any amount of digging without feeling the smallest inconvenience from it,

26

BROOKLANDS;

OR,

THE FIELD SPORTS OF THE WESTERNS.

BY LINTON.

CHAP. VIII.

Gentlemen sportsmen and sporting gentlemen of merrie England, I greet you. Put on your leathers, top-boots, and spurs, white, wellpolished, and bright as may be; the coats belonging to your several hunts, if you do so belong to hunts--if not, the gallant scarlet, or, as may be, your dark Oxford grey; on your heads well-brushed hats; on your hands well-fitting and well-washed buckskin gloves. For the nonce, leave at home your chains and your studs, and your outlandishshaped hunting caps, like the head piece of the Sikh commander; doubtless very appropriate to prevent the burning suns of India from penetrating warriors' pates, and by no means inappropriate for huntsmen and whips, if only to distinguish them from the field, far more so to guard them from branches of trees, &c., they having continually to enter dense coverts. Leave also your waistcoats, with innumerable pockets, and your unsightly-looking knee-cords; in fact, all those modern innovations of dress, which make men look like mountebanks instead of sportsmen. For my part, though perhaps I am wrong; I see no men who look so much like sportsmen and gentlemen as do the members of the Beaufort Hunt, and there are among them men who are mounted as well, and can ride side by side in any county with any hounds in England. Their costume is top boots and leathers, a blue coat, buckskin gloves, and a hat. What does a gentleman require more? The blue coats are distinguished in the field among the red, and generally speaking in the van. Eccentricity of costume, caps, cords, chains, and twenty-pocketed waistcoats, will not suffice to carry men over brooks, gates, and walls. So, for this day, leave them at home, and join the Westerns at the meet.

On a fine open knoll or common land, looking south-west, behold the assembled pack, and a field of more than one hundred horsemen, I was about to say--but no, it was the Christmas holidays, and many ponies had gathered there also, some of which, with their young riders, greatly distinguished themselves, and, if I fail not in memory, there were several asses also. Behind this knoll ran a somewhat long belt of fir trees--protecting, as it were, the hill side from the keen north and north-easterly blasts; while in front, some two or three hundred yards from the spot where the hounds were placed, a large thick covert of gorse covered the whole side of the slope. It generally held two or three foxes, and was reckoned a sure find. On this gorse the sun shone brightly, and in fact it was a well chosen snug retreat for master reynard, the more so as immediately below it a rich luxuriant vale extended for mile on mile towards the Severn, dotted over with numerous farm houses, to whose poultry yards and pigeon houses they paid alternately their devoirs. On the left, also, about three miles distant,

So now, gen

stood the handsome residence of Lord Delamere, a millionaire and a game preserver of the common order; for all that, be was rather a friend than an enemy to fox hunters, for no doubt the varmints found the flavour of his pheasants vastly agreeable, and his rabbits were abundant; moreover, whether his keepers attended to his instructions or not, imperative orders were given not to destroy foxes, and one was generally found in his coverts. So much for the battle field, as far as it goes; now for the army, and then the charge. The Earl rode up to our party on a good powerful bay hunter, one of his own stamp, and there are few better, and thus accosted us-" How are you, Western? and Miss Bessy? Charmed to see you in the hunting field! 'Pon my word, Corbeau and Brilliant look as well as their riders. And the boys home from Eton? Glad to see you, lads! But, halloa! Fred, where did you pick up that piece of blood? It's not the Brookland stamp, I fancy." "No, no!" said the governor, "no horse of mine. Farmer Barleycorn very kindly lent the nag for Fred to try him, though I fancy he is not precisely fitted to join my stud. However, we shall see if he can go, for I imagine you intend to give us a run." "And if you do, my Lud,” chimed in Barleycorn, who came forward, "and Master Fred lets un go, there's not a harse in the field can beat him." "Ah, Barleycorn!" added the Earl," glad to see you in the field, and with such a good stud. You must be doing well, notwithstanding free trade; and your looks by no means belie my words." "Why, thank'ee, my Lud, we do manage to jog on; and if corn is low, horses' feed is low also." "Well, I always like to see the yeomen of England in the hunting field. tlemen," he added, taking out his watch, " time's up, and we shall soon see if the gorse holds a fox." Then, turning to Bessy, he pointed out, about two miles distant below us, a winding brook which crossed the vale, and recommended her to ride quietly up and down the line of plantation. "If the fox breaks across the vale, you will see the heat of the run, dear lady; at all events none of the mishaps at the brook, and there will be many, will escape you. Probably, Master Fred, or Arty, may number among the unlucky; for Jumper, as he terms that huge-legged chesnut, in my opinion is a questionable brook jumper. If we break to the east, towards Delamere Woods, then ride to the east end of the covert, and tell Thomas to skirt the hills, and you may possibly see the end of it.""Papa insists on my not following the hounds," said Bessy. "Not necessary to follow them if you do as I tell you. Never mind papa in the hunting field; he is as keen as his own boys. So, good bye, Bessy. Your horse is perfection. Now then, Phillips! yoiks into the gorse!". Phillips touched his cap, and rode forward with the gallant pack at his heels, their coats actually shining in the morning sun, and their condition admirable; and in two minutes every hound, at the sound of his voice, dashed into the gorse like a charge of cavalry. Now turn for a moment, and contemplate the field, recollecting the period was a few days before Christmas. All the boys in England were at home for the holidays, save those poor fellows who had no homes to go home to; all the boys in England, with few exceptions, are fond of fox-hunting. Therefore might be seen many lads on various ponies, good, bad, and indifferent. Then, be it recollected, that it was a season when all the clerks of counting houses and all sorts of houses, and others, become insuperably idle, and desire to have what is termed a

spree; and they fancy that galloping a poor hired hackney over two or three fields, and then tumbling off in the mud, is hunting; and after catching their horse, and riding home again, they relate their exploits to Anna Maria, the milliner or shop girl with plastered hair à la Madonna, and glazed shoes, whom they assure, on the following Sunday afternoon, that they rode over six gates and two brooks side by side with the Duke or his Lordship, and that their 'ors was an out-and outer; and the poor girl turns her eyes up, and after admiring his fashionable tie, believes, as rightly she should, that he is a hero. Then there are two or three sporting doctors, who go the first twenty minutes like bricks, and coming to a brief check, within hail of a patient, take advantage of that check to feel his pulse, and charge him an extra five shillings for coming so far to see him, to say nothing of medicine promised to be sent. Well, I, for one, grudge them not their trifle of sport or their earnings, which are ill paid and hardly laboured for. Some of them, if well mounted, manage to do this little bit of professional, and then hit off the hounds again before the finish, if so be it has not been a teaser. And then come the red coats, and the cords, and the caps, and the yeomen stout and bold, and many well mounted, and the red coats with leathers and hats; and the parsons, generally speaking, men who, having ridden a "steeple-chase," can ride in a fast run; and lastly the flower of the hunt, with a few stranger officers on leave or from neighbouring quarters, with a sprinkling of blue coats from the Duke of Gloucestershire's. In fact, the field that gathered for the chase on that fair morning numbered well nigh two hundred. Recollect, also, the meet was within reach of one large city, even for men who rode hacks which they called hunters, and sufficiently near to another, for men who rode hacks to covert, and then exchanged them for hunters. How they all fared at the end of that memorable day it would be in vain for me to attempt to describe, or how they went in the run, for I saw them not. My memory reverts solely to the governor on Corbeau, Barleycorn, who was no flincher in the field, and who, moreover, was most anxious to witness the prowess of Arty on Silvertail and myself on the Jumper, and I watched them keenly as far as possible throughout the run, and even years afterwards recollect every incident of the chase, so far as they were concerned; so shall I give it here.

CHAP IX. THE RUN.

Girths were tightened, for many were there who would have tightened them even were they already in the last hole, solely that other persons did so, and they heard it was a sporting custom; others cast away the ends of their cigars, while a few lit fresh ones out of bravado-but then they came to smoke probably cabbage leaves, not to ride to hounds. But hark to the melodious voice of Violet, a beautiful mottled bitch; Violet, one of the pride of a pack then, as now, one of the first, if not the first, in England, tells a joyous tale. "Hark to Violet !" echoed again and again the full voice of the huntsman, who, standing up in his stirrups, eagerly cheered on his pets. But their leader's voice was scarcely wanting with such a pack as that; Violet's note was enough. The whole pack were on the scent like lightning; in one instant the gorse was alive with quickening sterns and melodious voices; two minutes more a large dog-fox emerged from the valley side, faced delibe

rately the whole field with a look of contempt, then turning, laid himself out, was over the first fence in a jiffy, and straight through the centre of that glorious vale direct towards the brook. Readers, oblige me by recollecting that at that period I was a boy fifteen years and a few months old; enthusiastically fond of hunting; mad about hounds; a boy that had never seen a pack of hounds before, save on a pony; never such a scene as that; and mounted on a horse that I had been told was a first-rate hunter.

On the right of my sister Bessy sat my dear old father quietly on his horse, yet watching with a face bright from enthusiasm and delight the working of the hounds; a short distance beyond was the noble Earl, the master of the pack-but they neither uttered a word; while on her left I was controlling the jumper, who was giving proofs of his not being "as gentle as a lamb." Behind us were Arty and Barleycorn, &c. The moment, however, Violet spoke, dad turned to Bessy, and said, "Now, dear, let Thomas guide you towards the plantations before this heterogeneous crowd make a charge, which they will in two minutes. Here, Thomas, take care of Miss Bessy." At that moment the whole pack had joined the hound which spoke; and I literally felt a choking sensation rise in my throat, not from fear, but extreme excitement-an excitement which those who can read the human face would have said existed in many an older breast than mine. The Earl took out his watch, again replaced it, buttoned his coat closer, and, turning to my father, said, Violet, you know, Western, never tells lies. The scent appears to be good. If he breaks away towards the vale, your boys will have their wishes gratified." At this moment every voice in the field appeared to joined in one wild halloo. Every hound rushed from the gorse, while the Earl, pushing down his hat, went off in a gallop. I can, in these after days, only compare the whole scene to the last charge of Waterloo; and the Earl pushing his hat on, as the Duke pushing in his telescope, and exclaiming "Up, guards, and at them!" a tear of positive excitement ran down my face, as clearing the first fence in his stride, the Jumper carried me in the front rank of that tremendous rush. The first four or five fields were all grass, and of some extent, with light fences, and the greater portion of the field, even the men on hacks and the ponies, appeared to go along. On my right I saw the governor on Corbeau, taking every thing coolly; on my left Arty was sailing away on Silvertail, who knew his business; and close by his side rode Barleycorn, in the full enjoyment of the chase. The hounds were racing mute with a burning scent, and the Jumper, with my light weight on his back, pulling my arms off. Nevertheless, he was evidently a fast horse, and took all in his stride; in fact, I almost led the field. we came to the sixth enclosure, however, a large stubble, the governor came up to me, saying, "Now, then, Fred, a wall's before us; so keep your horse well together. Do not be in a hurry, and we shall shake off the crowd." True enough; there was a wall, at least four and a half feet high, built of loose stones, and no time to select an easy place. It was the first I had ever encountered; but my spirit was up, and at it we went. Corbeau cleared it as a matter of course, and over went the Jumper after him, without touching a stone. "Bravo, Fred!" exclaimed the Squire Bravo, boy!" My heart beat with pride, and I turned to the left and beheld Barleycorn in the air, with uplifted whip,

As