28 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



a dry ditch where the blue speedwell flourishes, in a little 

 clump of lush grass, or in a prickly bed of nettles, or even 

 on a piece of waste land. 



And when the eggs are laid and the hen sits closely, you 

 may see the cock, of delicate coat, fly joyously up into the 

 air for a dozen yards, returning to the exact bramble spray 

 whence he started — a mere ecstatic expression of joy that 

 all is thriving so prosperously in the little family circle. 

 And when the young are hatched — those weak, timid fledg- 

 lings that recall the sedge-warbler's young in habit — the 

 happy pair are both busy catching flies and moths near the 

 beloved children, for they never leave their nest far. 



And as soon as the timid chicks have a few feathers — not 

 a quarter the number they should have — these young things 

 will be leaving the nest (again resembling the sedge-warbler 

 in habit), though they are unable to fly across a good mill 

 outlet : they think, perhaps, that they can run sufficiently 

 well to escape an enemy. But they are not alert enough 

 for that, and the hunting urchin soon " muddles them out," 

 as he expresses it, or makes them lose their little heads, both 

 metaphorically and often, I fear, in reality, for he takes them 

 home to his father's ferrets — those omnivorous bird-eaters. 



But when the cherries are ripe the parents know, for the 

 " hay-jack " dearly loves a cherry, thrusting his delicate bill 

 into the most luscious cheek of a Frogmore Bigaricaic with 

 the relish of a connoisseur. At other times you may catch 

 his young (four or five in number) sitting closely together 

 upon a bramble, forming a beautiful little decorative group 

 against the blue, and if you drop behind the nearest green 

 screen and watch, you will see the mother, ma3'hap, come 

 with a full crop and alight on a spray opposite, and, 'mid 

 many cheepings and flutterings of wings, the timid little 

 songsters are fed in turn. And a pretty little picture it is, 

 till some boisterous boy, perchance, as sometimes happens, 

 knocks three of the timid weaklings over with a smooth 

 stone, so closely are they seated at their little famil}' meal. 



