THE WHITETHROATS 29 



But you are consoled when you think that they will rear 

 two more broods that season, if not robbed by man nor beast 

 — three families reared to leave with him when the September 

 gales blow boisterously over the seas. 



A delicate, timid little songster is the " hay-jack," but 

 dear, for all that, with his softly-tinted plumage, delicate as 

 the silvery petals of a rose, and his smoke-coloured crest, 

 chaste as the bloom upon a peach ; and, in return for his 

 sweet short song, he is most welcome to all the cherries he 

 can peck in my garden, nor do I think the needy fenman 

 would grudge him a white-heart. 



