(SOF =) 
CHAPTER xt: 
THE WINCHESTER WATER MEADOWS. 
THE stretch of meadow-land which runs from Winchester to Eastleigh 
has been regarded as a happy hunting-ground by myself and my brothers from 
the very earliest days of our collection. Few, indeed, must be the fields which 
have not listened to the twang of my catapult or the sharp crack of the 
walking-stick gun. And, in truth, none could desire a more perfect haunt for 
small birds. Lying, as they do, along the course of the Itchen, between two 
chains of downs, these meadows attract not only the water birds and 
Warblers, but other species also that one associates more readily with the 
upland heights. I have more than once seen Wheatears close to the river, 
while Stonechats and Whinchats are common near the canal below St. 
Catherine’s Hill, and breed in the small plantations on its banks. It is in 
spring that these meadows are most enticing. Their sheltered dips and 
tangled hedges appeal with special force to the Warblers newly arrived from 
the south, and it is here that one listens, and not in vain, for the earliest notes 
of the summer birds. March brings us the welcome form of the Chiffchaff— 
the delicate harbinger of spring. Like the sturdier Wheatear, it never fails to 
brave the blustering winds; indeed, I met one once near Twyford in the 
middle of December. Tame as can be when they first arrive in small flocks of 
half a dozen, they soon separate and betake themselves to the tree tops, and 
then, for Warblers, they are hard to approach. The Chiffchaff may be observed 
in the very first meadow beyond the Warden’s garden, and here, too, I have 
once seen the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, while the College bathing-place in 
the same field is one of the favourite haunts of the Kingfisher, our loveliest 
and most typical bird. 
All the way down the valley the Kingfisher may be met with, sometimes 
chasing its mate with shrill cries across the pastures, sometimes sitting on the 
small arches which span the lesser streams; but, bright though it is, it often 
flies off without attracting observation, and it is perhaps most generally 
recognized by its note. I found the nest once, on April 17th, in a bank 
beside one of the small waterfalls beyond Twyford; it contained four eggs, 
F 2 
