170 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



allowed myself to hope. However, after yet another 

 morning spent in vain I resolved to give it up that same 

 evening and go back west. It had been labour in vain, 

 I thought sadly, then smiled and felt a little encouraged 

 to remember that "Labour in Vain" was the actual name 

 of a barren stony piece of ground with a little furze 

 growing on it, where many years ago I had found my 

 first furze-wren — a spot distant about thirty miles from 

 the nearest known locality for the bird. 



I then went to a high barrow on the heath and sat 

 down to meditate and cool myself in the wind; there 

 my attention was attracted to a litter of feathers near 

 my feet of some small bird on which a sparrow-hawk 

 had recently fed. The body feathers were red or chest- 

 nut brown, the quills black or blackish brown. I began 

 to speculate as to the species, when it all at once oc- 

 curred to me that these were the two colours of the 

 furze-wren. The wind was blowing strong and carrying 

 the feathers, red and black, fast away — in two or three 

 minutes there would be few left to judge from. I 

 quickly gathered those that remained clinging to the 

 stunted heath on the barrow-top and began examining 

 them. No, the sparrow-hawk had not struck down and 

 devoured that most unlikely bird, the furze-wren: there 

 remained one little quill with a white border and one 

 small pure white feather. They were linnet's feathers 

 — the dark wing feathers and the chestnut red body 

 feathers from the back. 



Now this trivial Incident of the barrow-top, where I 

 went to meditate and did not do so, served as a fillip 



