THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 35D 



— with their hedgerows gay with blossoms, diffusing sweet per- 

 fumes and jubilant with the song of birds! 



English hedges are famous nesting-places for man>- of the 

 feathered tribes. I can recall the pleasure of my first inspection 

 of the nest of the Long-Tailed Tit (Parus caiidatus). It was a 

 seemingly compact ball of the finest and greenest moss; but it had 

 on one side a small round entrance, closed with a feather. The tit 

 lays many tiny white eggs, spotted with lilac. 



Another nest that attracted my attention in my early days 

 was that of the Red-backed Shrike {Lanius collurio L). The 

 mother bird was sitting on her pretty, cream-coloured, richly 

 spotted eggs. Meanwhile her mate was busy attending to her 

 wants. He kept her larder well supplied. On the thorns around 

 her were impaled little blind mice and callow birds, shewing that 

 the common name of Butcher-bird was justly given to this feathered 

 pillager. But — as an Eastern Township housewife said in praise 

 of her husband, so we may say of the Shrike — "He is a good pro- 

 vider." 



It is said* that the English ornithologist, Gould, dated his 

 interest in bird life from the time when, in his childhood, he was 

 lifted up to see the pretty blue eggs in a hedge-sparrow's nest. 



Here and there, in the South of England, a lane leaves the 

 enclosures and traverses a piece of common land covered with 

 bushes of the Furze {Ulex europoeus). This strange plant, which 

 has spines instead of leaves, is, in its season, gorgeous in its wealth 

 of go'den bloom. Linnajus, on first beholding it upon Wands- 

 worth Common, fell upon his knees and thanked (jod who had 

 created a thing so beautiful. 



Elsewhere the lane enters, it may be, a stretch of woodland, 

 the game preserve of the lord of the surrounding Manor; and 

 there, truly, the wayfarer is in the midst of charming sights and 

 sounds. In early spring the woods around him are ankle-deep 

 with blue-bells, anemones and primroses. Later in the year the 

 stately foxglove {Digitalis purpurea L.) rears its shafts of purple 

 bloom,' and "lords and ladies" look out from their stalls. 



Many beautiful butterflies sport around. I can mention but 

 a few of them. The pretty Speckled Wood {Lasiommata ceoeria) 



*Coiintrv \\'a!ks of a Naturalist with his Children, p. 109. 



