84 A BIRD!) COLLECTOR'S MEDIERY: 
whether they would be easy to distinguish or not. A few seconds were suffi- 
cient to decide the point. The curious song and shimmering flight at once 
attracted the attention, while the greenish hue and broad yellow margins 
of the tertiaries made identification easy as soon as a nearer view was 
obtained. The first pair I saw were quite low down on small silver birches, 
but they are more often to be found in the beech and oak trees, dropping 
down with characteristic flight from the higher to the lower branches, some- 
times even into a holly bush, but seldom, if ever, descending to the ground 
unless actually engaged in nest-building. The Wood-Wren is a most 
delightful little bird. Arriving late as it does—about the first week in May— 
it is seen when the spring foliage is at its best, and the New Forest has 
few more attractive sights to offer than these Ashurst glades, dotted here 
and there with bluebells and primroses, and above them the little Wood- 
Wren sporting amidst the delicate greenery of the budding trees. One 
other note that may be heard in this neighbourhood is that of the Wryneck, 
but the bird is now becoming more and more scarce, and is far less frequent 
than the Nuthatch. 
South of Ashurst Lodge we come to that brown expanse of moorland 
called Matley Bog. On the heath itself, not very far from Lyndhurst Golf 
Links, I once saw two Hen-Harriers fluttering along at a safe distance from 
bush to bush, the light grey plumage of the male showing up well against 
the dark background of faded heather. They kept about one hundred yards 
off, and it seemed utterly impossible to get nearer. An alder brake in the 
centre of the bog is in spring the resort of a regular army of Warblers, 
which can be heard singing in every tree. I have, however, never come 
upon anything rarer than a Blackcap, though I once nearly trod upon a 
semi-albino Woodcock as it crouched in some dry leaves at the foot of a 
bush. The alders are very suggestive of Siskins, and, as Wise mentions 
them as occasional visitors to the Forest, they are probably to be found 
here at times. He speaks also of Dartford Warblers being observed amongst 
the Whinchats on Lyndhurst Heath, but the heath is now but sparsely covered 
with furze bushes, and though, with a bird of such skulking habits, certainty 
as to its absence is unattainable, I am inclined to think that the Dartfords 
have long since disappeared. If the explorer on his return to Lyndhurst Road 
finds that he has still some time to wait for his train, a visit to Costicle’s 
Pond would be a good way of winding up the day. The pond lies a short 
distance down one of the woodland rides on the north side of the road. 
It is overgrown with herbage, but has the appearance of a good place, and 
one can well imagine some rarity occurring there. The surrounding woods 
