172 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



game on these Downs, the excessive wildness of 

 the coveys, and their interminable flights ; and 

 often have I seen others who fancied themselves 

 rather "knowing" in such matters, but whose 

 experience had been limited to the thick wheat- 

 stubble and the prolific turnip-field, regularly 

 "choked off" after the second or third hill had 

 been surmounted, just perhaps as a marker, 

 perched on the summit of a distant beech tree, 

 was hi the act of telegraphing the delightful fact 

 that a covey had dropped among the junipers half 

 a mile higher up. 



And if you are a lover of the picturesque, what 

 a magnificent scene is spread before you, as you 

 pause for a moment from your successful toil, 

 after having fairly run your game to ground on 

 the heathery summit of one of these lofty Downs ! 

 The very air that you breathe, fresh from the alti- 

 tude of the spot, and mingled, as it is, with the 

 sea-breeze, is far more exhilarating than any arti- 

 ficial compound which your flask can furnish. 

 Down after Down swells around you, their smooth 

 sides dotted with the evergreen holly and juniper, 

 or varied with larger patches of golden gorse, 

 while the steep slopes which bound the interme- 

 diate valleys are clothed with hanging beech- 

 woods, whose irregular forms relieve the undulating 

 outline t>f the Downs, and the rich and varied 



