SCARLET PIMPERNEL. GRASSHOPPER WARBLER. 129 



they were. After tea they went for a birds'-nesting ramble 

 through the wood. 



*' Oh, look here !" said Jimmy; " when we came this afternoon 

 all this place was covered with the scarlet pimpernel, and now 

 there is not one to be seen. They have all closed up." 



"Yes," answered the keeper, "they always do that about 

 four o'clock, and all day long when the day is dull. We call 

 them wink-a-peep, and sometimes shepherd's weather-glass." 



"How different to these dingy meadow brown butterflies 

 which are fluttering all about us. I have seen them fly on the 

 most damp and cheerless of days, when not another butterfly 

 could be seen. I like them, although they are so dingy and 

 ugly, because they are so hardy and homely." 



" What butterfly is that ? " said Jimmy, pointing to one that 

 flitted past. Dick's net was ready in a moment, and off he went 

 in chase. Bringing back his prize, they examined it and pro- 

 nounced it to be the speckled wood butterfly or wood argus. 

 It is a common insect nearly everywhere. It has wings of a deep- 

 brown spotted with buff, and on the wings are pure white eyes 

 with glossy black circles around them. It maybe seen in every 

 woodland glade, and is not at all shy. 



" Hush ! " said Frank; "is that a shrew-mouse or a grass- 

 hopper which is making that chirruping noise?" 



" It is neither, sir," replied the keeper ; " it is a bird, and 

 there it is creeping about the bottom of that hedge like a 

 mouse." 



" Oh, I know what it is, it is a grasshopper warbler. Let us 

 look for its nest." 



They searched for quite a quarter of an hour before they 

 found it. It was placed on the ground in the middle of a tuft 

 of grass and at the foot of a bush. It was cup-shaped, made of 

 grass and moss, and contained six eggs which were pinkish- 

 white in colour, spotted all over with reddish-brown. 



The note of this little bird seems to be of a ventriloquial 

 character like that of the landrail or corncrake. I have searched 

 many a time in the exact spot where the sound appeared to 

 come from, and then perhaps discovered that the bird was on 

 the other side of the lane. 



Jimmy next found a nest on the ground* It was arched 

 over like a wren's, and was very beautifully constructed out of 

 moss, hair, and feathers. It contained five round white eggs 



K 



