x CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XV 



PAGE 



In a Green Country in Quest of Rare Songsters . 148 



Green England — An imagined journey to the stars — The 

 silent bicycle — Encounters with blind men — Rambles 

 in Dorset — Wareham — Story of a good little boy — 

 A surprising experience at Poole — The threshold of 

 Hampshire. 



CHAPTER XVI 



In a Hampshire Village ...... 158 



Rare species and private collectors — An old soldier — Moor- 

 hen — A family of working folk — A talk with my land- 

 lady — Her love of bird music — The story of her lost 

 child. 



CHAPTER XVII 



The Furze-Wren or Furze-Fairy .... 167 



A new locality for the Dartford warbler — A search for it on 

 a heath — A litter of feathers — First sight of the furze- 

 wren — First hearing of its song — Its habits and song 

 described — Its originality as a songster. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

 Back to the West Country ..... 175 



A procession of white cows — Revisiting old friends — Monta- 

 cute House — Ham Hill stone — A nightingale and a 

 commercial traveller — A north-countryman at Salisbury 

 — Poetic feeling of northerners — The commercial 

 traveller's disappointment — Between Yeovil and 

 Glastonbury — The people of Somerset. 



CHAPTER XIX 



AVALON AND A BLACKBIRD . . . . . . 1 82 



Excavations and restorations at Glastonbury — Blackbird 

 music — Its relation to human music: C. A. Witchell's 

 theory — A blackbird of genius — Intrinsic beauty of the 

 blackbird's voice — Our favourite singer — The black- 

 bird in early Irish poetry. 



