42 NATURE NEAR LONDON. 



these bushes of woodbine the nightingales when 

 they first arrive in spring are fond of searching 

 for food, and dart on a grub with a low satisfied 

 " kurr." 



The place is so favourite a resort with these birds 

 that it might well be called Nightingale Copse. Four 

 or five may be heard singing at once on a warm May 

 morning, and at least two may often be seen as well 

 as heard at the same time. They sometimes sing 

 from the trees, as well as from the bushes ; one was 

 singing one morning on an elm branch which projected 

 over the road, and under which the van drivers jogged 

 indifferently along. Sometimes they sing from the 

 dark foliage of the Scotch firs. 



As the summer wanes they haunt the hawthorn 

 hedge by the roadside, leaving the interior of the 

 copse, and may often be seen on the dry and dusty 

 sward. When chiffchaff and willow-wren first come 

 they remain in the treetops, but in the summer de- 

 scend into the lower bushes, and, like the nightin- 

 gales, come out upon the sward by the wayside. 

 Nightingale Copse is also a great favourite with 

 cuckoos. There are a few oaks in it, and in the 

 meadows in the rear many detached hawthorn bushes, 

 and two or three small groups of trees, chestnuts, 

 lime, and elm. From the hawthorns to the elms, 

 and from the elms to the oaks, the cuckoos continually 

 circulate, calling as they fly. 



One morning in May, while resting on a rail in 

 the copse, I heard four calling close by, the furthest 

 not a hundred yards distant, and as they continually 

 changed their positions flying round there was always 



