142 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



and the only trimming that takes place is when the 

 farmer needs a fresh supply of thatch pegs, and cuts 

 them from his own brushwood in preference to using 

 the new-fashioned square abominations in favour with 

 the more scientific, but often less successful husbandman ; 

 or when he cuts long rods from the sycamores, which he 

 sticks in the ground to guide him straight when 

 ploughing the first furrows " setting the rig " as Derby- 

 shire farmers say. These dear old hedgerows are full of 

 moss-grown rotten stumps, gnarled roots and tangled 

 thickets. Here and there a dense holly-bush shows out 

 in darker green, and from its centre the dead stump of 

 what was once a flourishing holly tree towers gray and 

 desolate and branchless. On this old stump the Cuckoo 

 loves to sit in spring, and he is heard calling for the first 

 time six seasons out of seven from its dead summit. In 

 winter-time it is the chosen perching place of the Sparrow 

 Hawk, where he watches for the sleepy Chaffinches and 

 belated Buntings, skimming after them along the hedge- 

 side in the evening gloom. Then in spring and summer 

 how beautiful and picturesque these old hedgerows be- 

 come, at the former season white and pink with fragrant 

 may, bird-cherry, sloe, and crab blossom ; in summer full 

 of odour from the dog-roses and brambles, the elder, 

 the honeysuckle, and the guelder rose. In autumn the 

 beauty of the hedges is none the less, for then the masses 

 and clusters of black and scarlet berries, and pink and 



