62 FIELD-STUDIES OF RARER BIRDS 



another on July llth of the same year near 

 Lancing. Nests in gorse bushes are not unheard 

 of, and in some districts the bird builds in a high 

 hedgerow-bank, where the nest may be either 

 rather away from the slope and kept in place by 

 any such plant as ivy or catch weed, or on some 

 stump overgrown with wild clematis or what not ; 

 while I have notes on one nest which was on the 

 field side of a stone wall and amongst ivy mantling 

 it. This nest was further protected by a peculiarly 

 dense hedge which ran the entire length of, and was 

 virtually touching, the wall. Most nests are on the 

 field side of a hedge bordering a road or track of 

 any description, and some few are conspicuously 

 exposed in some slight opening of the cover they 

 are in, though in the main, even if the nest is 

 visible at all, that will merely apply to a small 

 portion of it, and then perhaps from one point 

 of view only. 



As has been seen further back, odd pairs of 

 ' Girls " evince a liking for the shrubberies and 

 gardens of country seats (where Yellowhammers 

 seldom if ever breed), especially should they encroach 

 on a lane or roadway. In such cases you never 

 quite know where to begin to look for the nest : 

 it may be anywhere. I have vivid recollections of 

 hours pleasantly, if barrenly, spent in hunting for 

 a nest of this description. I never saw the female 

 once, but the male was very much there. He sang 

 almost mockingly, and with marked persistence 



