36 NATURE NEAR LONDON 



a hedge, and the low mound 'in which the stakes are 

 fixed swarmed one summer with ant-hills full of eggs, and 

 a slight rustle in the corn as I approached told where 

 the parent bird had just led her chicks from the feast to 

 shelter. 



Passing into the copse by the road, which is metalled 

 but weed-grown from lack of use, the grasshoppers sing 

 from the sward at the sides, but the birds are silent as 

 the summer ends. Pink striped bells of convolvulus 

 flower over the flints and gravel, the stones nearly hidden 

 by their runners and leaves ; yellow toadflax or eggs and 

 bacon grew here till a weeding took place, since which it 

 has not reappeared, but in its place viper's bugloss sprang 

 up, a plant which was not previously to be found there. 

 Hawkweeds, some wild vetches, white yarrow, thistles, 

 and burdocks conceal the flints yet further, so that the 

 track has the appearance of a green drive. 



The slender birch and ash poles are hung with wood- 

 bine and wild hops, both growing in profusion. A 

 cream-coloured wall of woodbine in flower extends in 

 one spot, in another festoons of hops hang gracefully, 

 and so thick as to hide everything beyond them. There 

 is scarce a stole without its woodbine or hops ; many of 

 the poles, though larger than the arm, are scored with 

 spiral grooves left by the bines. Under 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 



