XV. 



THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE HEDGEROWS. 



A HEDGEROW is a never-failing source of attraction to a 

 naturalist it conceals much that is curious, and openly 

 displays still more that is interesting. How beautiful 

 and wild and luxuriant our real old-fashioned hedges 

 are, as they stretch out in crooked lines of foliage 

 between the fields or on either side of the country lanes. 

 What a great variety of vegetation grows in them ; 

 what a wealth of bloom and berry, according to the 

 season, adorns their green expanse. And the birds of 

 the hedgerows ! In spring and summer especially these 

 places are a chosen haunt of birds. How cheerily they 

 sing from the twigs in spring-time ; how snugly they 

 hide their pretty homes among the hedgerow foliage ; 

 how they feast upon the berries and wild fruits in 

 autumn. Let us for a brief season devote our attention 

 to some of the architecture we can find in the hedges 

 the homes we shall find there are most beautiful and 

 interesting. 



The hedgerows are of many kinds, but it is not all of 



