FURZE-WREN OR FURZE-FAIRY 171 



feet high, and covering three to four acres of ground. 

 As a rule the bird prefers a sparser growth with open 

 spaces among the bushes. 



My bird soon vanished and refused to come out 

 again. Something better followed; fifty yards further 

 on a second bird appeared and perched on a bush 

 began to sing, allowing me to approach to within 

 twenty yards of him. He too then dived down into 

 the thicket and was seen no more. I went home with 

 that small song in me, but did not attempt to de- 

 scribe it, as I wished first to hear it again more 

 freely and fully uttered. 



Next day I found no fewer than nine pairs, all 

 living and breeding near together, at that one point 

 in the vast dense thicket. Outside it was all empty 

 and barren; just there the little living gems sparkled 

 in profusion. But how melancholy to think that any 

 cunning scoundrel hired by a private collector, or 

 the keeper of a bird-stuffer's shop who calls himself 

 "Naturalist," might appear any moment with an 

 air-gun and extirpate the whole colony in the course 

 of a morning! 



I found that my best time to observe these birds 

 was about five o'clock in the morning, when they 

 are most excitable and vocal. I would then some- 

 times have two, at times three, pairs about me, flit- 

 ting hither and thither, vanishing and reappearing, 

 scolding and by-and-by fighting; for any spot in 

 which I stationed myself to observe them would be 

 within the territory of a particular pair, and when 

 other pairs came in to assist in the demonstration 



