No. 1.] BULGER — A SUMMER STROLL IN ENGLAND. 29 



Hedge-plants did not seem to be generally in bloom, though, 

 here and there, the pale petals of the blackberry showed them- 

 selves amidst the tangled bushes, and purple vetches (Vicia 

 cracca et sativa), the wild chervil (Chcerophyllum sylvestre), 

 crucifers of several genera, with buttercups of at fewest two 

 species (Ranunculus bulbosus et acris), and the purple flowers of 

 the common mallow (jnalva sylbestris) peeped out from the long 

 grass and lower herbage : while, at the edges of the fields, close 

 to the road, I found blossoms of the common gromwell (Litho- 

 spermum officinale), the dogwood (Cornus sanguined), a pale 

 lilac variety of the large bittercress. [Cardamine amara), the lesser 

 stitchwort (Stellar ia graminea), the common agrimony (Agri- 

 monia eupatoria), and the great, rank goutweed (JEgopodium 

 podagraria) ; as well as, much to my surprise, the already 

 developed seed-balls of the yellow goat's beard (Tragopogon pra- 

 tense) . 



Of birds, I met with few. The modest and confiding hedge 

 sparrow (Accentor ^nodularis), harmless, unobtrusive little dwel- 

 ler by the road-side, crept out now and then from the shelter of 

 his leafy home to look about him ; a few stray robins and 

 thrushes piped their sweet songs occasionally from the trees and 

 copses close by ; but the woods and meadows were, for the most 

 part, silent, and even the joyous skylark seemed to have gone to 

 rest for a time. Later in the day, however, I heard several 

 cuckoos, saw a flock o*f starlings, and disturbed a magpie from a 

 thicket, out of .which he darted with a precipitancy that looked 

 very like conscious guilt, and suggested the idea of a culprit 

 endeavouring to escape from the consequences of some recently 

 committed crime. 



Insects did not strike me as being abundant, though the 

 orange-tip butterfly [Euchloe cardamine) seemed common enough 

 wherever I went, as well as the small cabbage-white (Pieris 

 rapce) ; and bees and wasps of several species were humming 

 and buzzing about amongst the flowers, while numbers of the 

 ethereal-looking, but ferocious, blue dragon-flies, were continually 

 darting through the air in pursuit of the unhappy little creatures 

 on which they prey. I found one brown, hairy caterpillar, with 

 black rings at the joining of the segments, which appeared to 

 me to resemble very much the larva of the moth (Lasiocampa 

 rubi) j but, on this point, I can give no reliable opinion. 



