170 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



same feeling about birds are naturally friends. He is 

 one of those strange but not very uncommon persons 

 who lead a double life. To some of us he is known 

 as an ornithologist ; to the theatre-going public he is 

 a finished actor, and those who know him only in his 

 impersonations would, I imagine, hear with surprise, 

 perhaps incredulity, that, off the boards, he is a 

 haunter of silent, solitary places where birds inhabit, 

 that in these communings he has a joy with which the 

 playgoer intermeddleth not. 



The heath was a very extensive one, covering an area 

 of several square miles, and it was not strange that 

 when I searched the spot he had described I failed to 

 find the birds. I then set patiently and methodically 

 to work to search the furzy places, especially where 

 the growth was thickest, in other parts, and after two 

 entire days spent in this quest I began to fear I was not 

 going to find them after all. But I had spent so many 

 days and weeks on former occasions in searching for 

 this same most elusive little creature in eight or nine 

 other spots where I have found him in the south and 

 west country, and knew his hiding habits so well, that 

 I still 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 furz^-wren — a spot dis- 



