the morning. "But how do they carry them?" asked May.
Some observers have said they are carried in the claws, but Mr. St.
John maintains that the little birds are clasped tightly between the
thighs.

"Is it not a difficult thing to tell the difference between the male
and female woodcock?" asked Willy. Yes, I do not think it is possible
in every case to tell the difference; the male bird is smaller than
the female of the same age, and there are slight differences in the
colour of the plumage, but as you may meet with birds of different
ages, and as woodcocks are much subject to variation of plumage, it is
difficult to pronounce whether this woodcock is a male and that a
female.

"Oh, papa, what are these ring-marks on the end of this bit of timber
upon which we are sitting?" said Willy. These rings or zones represent
the various growths made every year by the tree when it was growing,
each zone being the produce of one year. As the wood ceases to grow
for some months in the winter, a distinction in appearance between the
last wood of a former and the first wood of the succeeding year is
occasioned; so that, in our own country at least, the age of a tree
can be ascertained within some limit by counting the number of zones;
there is, however, great difference in the size of the same species of
trees, even of the same age, and great difference too in the width of
the zones; indeed, you can see this in the case of the wood we have
been sitting upon. See how the zones differ, how broad some are, how
narrow are others; nay, even in one year you see how the zone varies.
The subject of the growth of trees is very interesting, and I would
advise you, when you get older, to pay some attention to it.

Here is another fungus, and a species which I am very glad to find in
the Wrekin woods, though it grows but sparingly. Take it up; turn it
over. How curious! the under side is not a series of gills, as in
_Agaricus_, nor a substance perforated by a number of little holes, as
in _Boletus_. It is formed of a quantity of delicate white teeth or
spines; see how beautiful they are and how easily broken. The spines
are exactly like miniature awls. It is called from the prickly
appearance of the under surface, or _hymenium_, the hedgehog mushroom
(_Hydnum repandum_). "Is it good to eat?" asked Jack. It is, in my
opinion, one of the most exquisite fungi that grows, and the most
curious thing about it is that its flavour very strongly res