Routes of the Birds. 157 



are capable of. Though a path much frequented by 

 the household passes beneath the trees in which they 

 build, they show no fear. 



Just as men from various causes congregate in 

 particular places, so there are spots in the fields 

 in the country generally which appear to specially 

 attract birds of all kinds. Wide districts are almost 

 bare of them : on a single farm you may often find 

 a great meadow which scarcely seems to have a 

 bird in it, while another little oddly-cornered field 

 is populous with them. This orchard and garden at 

 Wick is one of the favorite places. It is like one of 

 those Eastern marts where men of fifty different na- 

 tionalities, and picturesquely clad, jostle each other 

 in the bazaars : so here feathered travellers of every 

 species have a kind of leafy capital. When the 

 nesting time is over the goldfinches quit the orchard, 

 and only return for a brief call now and then. L 

 almost think the finches have got regular caravan 

 routes round and across the fields which they travel 

 in small bands. 



In the meadow, just without the close-cropped 

 hawthorn which encloses one side of the orchard, 

 is a thick hedge, the end of which comes right up 

 to the apple trees, being only separated by the ha- 

 ha wall and a ditch. This hedge, dividing two 

 meadows, is about two hundred yards long and 

 well grown with a variety of underwood, hazel, 

 willow, maple, hawthorn, blackthorn, elder, &c., 

 and studded with some few elms and ashes, and 

 a fine horse-chestnut. Down the ditch for some 

 distance runs a little stream (except in a long 

 drought) ; and where another hedge branches from 



