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New Forest Birds.

On the edge of the New Forest deep in England many years ago there lived a man that spent his time taking young birds from their nests and training them to do various tricks. His main speciality was young Owls also Magpies. The Birds he taught to steal especially the Magpies. The Owls he used as messengers. He was a wicked man that hated anything to do with the Fairies of this world. He often caught glimpses of Fairies while he was robbing the nests of the young Owlets.

His method of teaching was very simple when a bird did, as he wanted he fed it with a piece of raw meat. If the bird was slow or did not understand what was expected of it he did not feed it. Each of the birds had a leather thong tied around its left leg. This thong was long enough to let the bird drink but not long enough to let it fly. Through the cave he had led a small stream of water from a nearby river. This water was so clear that he himself drank of it as well as the birds.

The other smaller birds in the area were afraid of the man but as he left them alone they did not complain. It was a Fairy that brought the attention of the Fairy Queen to this wicked man and asked her to do something about him. The Fairy Queen was reluctant to do anything about the man after all he was a human being and so she asked Mother Nature for her help.

Mother Nature thought about the man and his treatment of the birds. What was she to do? If she caused the waters of the stream that ran through his cave to flood she would harm the birds. If she caused a landslide to block his cave it would still be the birds to suffer. The main problem as she saw it was the leather thongs that kept the birds tied to their perches. She asked the Mice to help her. They should enter the cave and chew away on the thongs until the birds were free. The mice refused. Every one knows that Owls eat mice. Then she had another thought the Weasels could easily chew through the thongs so she asked the weasels to help her. Weasels are awful creatures they rob the nests of eggs and eat young birds. The Weasels were out of question as far as help would go.

Mother Nature told the Fairy Queen Feeana about the problems she had. Queen Feeana said she would think about the matter and for Mother Nature to leave everything to her. In Fairyland there lived a young Leprechaun who was always boasting about how strong he was and how courageous. He would fight anyone and anything in the whole of Fairyland. The Queen Feeana called the Leprechaun to her house and put this plan to him. If he would go into the cave and free all of the birds she would reward him well with some magic gold and a bundle of magic leather. The Leprechaun who had opened his mouth too often to back out agreed with trembling heart to go and free the birds.

One late summer night the man went to catch some more young birds in their nests in the forest. The Leprechaun plucked up courage and went into the cave. He freed all of the birds and turned the cave upside down. The perches where the birds had been sitting he threw onto the fire all the furniture such as it was he also burnt. The bed a table and a chair and one three legged stool all went into the greedy flames. The birds flew off into the woods and were never to be seen again.

The evil man robbed three nests of young Owls and was on his way home to his cave. Now Mother Nature had her chance she uprooted a large tree, which fell onto the man. He died straight away and from this time on the woods of the New Forest has been free of such evil men. The fairy Queen Feeana placed the New Forest out of bounds to all men that capture birds for whatever reasons be they good or bad all birds must be left in freedom.