82 FRIGHTENED AT SHADOWS. 



1 St. James, the 25th of July,' says Broderip, l is a 

 dark day in the Wheatear's calendar, for then the shepherds 

 take the field against the devoted birds, beginning on that 

 day to lay their traps cut in the turf, and covered by a 

 severed portion of the same, which are all in full play 

 by the first of August. The slightest alarm, even the 

 shadow of the passing clouds, will make the birds run 

 under the shelter of the severed turf, and into one of the 

 two twisted horse-hair nooses there set. The numbers cap- 

 tured annually are almost incredible. One shepherd has 

 been known to take eighty-four dozen in a day, and Pennant 

 recorded that about 1840 dozen were annually snared at 

 Eastbourne. The inns of all the Sussex coast are then 

 redolent of these savoury victims ; and, sooth to say, their fat 

 and flavour are superlative.' 



The following lines by Charlotte Smith are addressed to 

 this bird : 



From what deep-sheltered solitude, 

 "Where in some quarry, wild and rude, 

 The feathered parent reared her brood ; 



Why, pilgrim, did you brave 

 The upland winds, so bleak and keen, 

 To seek these hills, whose slopes between, 

 Wide stretched in grey expanse, is seen 



The ocean's toiling wave ? 



To take you, shepherd boys prepare 

 The hollow turf, the wiry snare ; 

 Of those weak terrors well aware 



That bid you vainly dread 

 The shadows floating o'er the downs, 

 Or murmuring gale that round the stones 

 Of some old beacon, as it moans, 



Scarce moves the thistle's head. 



And if a cloud obscure the sun, 



With faint and fluttering heart you run, 



And to the pitfall you should shun 



Resort in trembling haste ; 

 While in that dewy cloud so high 

 The Lark, sweet minstrel of the sky, 

 Sings in the morning's beaming eye, 



And bathes his spotted breast. 



